On Tuesday, Sept 27, Winthrop University released its annual Security and Fire Safety Report for 2022, as required by law under the Clery Act.
The Winthrop University Police Department publishes the statistics annually as part of its Safety, Security, and Fire Report and in compliance with the federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, aimed at ensuring transparency about colleges/universities crime statistics and policies.
The annual report contains information about campus security and personal safety. This includes crime prevention, public safety authority, crime reporting policies, fire safety, disciplinary procedures, and other safety-related matters. The crime statistics reflect incidents reported to the Clery Compliance Office by university staff as well as incidents reported to the police during 2021. The statistics also may indicate acts that were reported to have happened off-campus and locations used by students such as fraternity and sorority houses.
According to the latest report, dating violence has increased significantly on campus and within residence halls. Rape, stalking, fondling, and aggravated assault are some of the crimes committed under these categories. At Winthrop University, aggravated assault is the most frequent crime of the past 3-years (2019-2021), with only one incident reported during 2019 and 2020 and a total of 17 incidents in 2021.
Charles Yearta, chief of police at the university, elaborates on the reasons behind the sharp increase in aggravated assault cases within the university’s community.
“This year our stats have pretty much the same as they’ve been every other subsequent year. What we have seen however, is a huge significant increase this year under aggravated assaults,” Yearta said. “The reason for that is because, our stats are always one year behind. Currently it’s 2022, but the stats that we just released have to be for calendar year 2021.During that year there was a shooting at the Pike House. According to the Clery stats, I have to record each person who was there as a victim. So, at that time there were ten people in that house. Ten of those aggravated assaults that were reported is because of that one incident that occurred there.”
Fondling is also one of the crimes reported more frequently during 2021 as well, with a total of five reported incidents and two unfounded in comparison to 2020 with only one incident reported. According to the Clery Act, unfounded reports are crimes that are reported with insufficient or false evidence to support the case.
“We do see an increase in the number of crimes occurring, but we believe that this is not because there are higher instances,” Yearta further explains.” We believe it’s because more people are coming forward, which they should because we want to offer them services even if they choose not to come to us and try to get it prosecuted or get someone charged or arrested.”
The annual report also revealed a significant decline in both crimes such as rape and burglary which each reporting a total of four incidents in 2020 and two in 2021. In addition, drug law violations have decreased slightly over the past three years, while liquor law violations and weapons law violations have increased as various crime incidents are continuously being reported throughout the year, Chief Yearta expresses the importance of reporting all incidents for accurate Clery Report results.
“We still want to strive to where we have accurate reporting so that we can not only give true stats out, but so that those individuals have the proper services through officers or state officers to help them cope and get them through this whole ordeal,” Yearta said. “A lot of what we are focusing on is that we want people to report, we demand people to report sometimes because we really want to help them. But it’s still their choice. They can choose not to tell anybody about it and I respect their decision on that. But in the end we just want them to have the services available to them so that they can continue in their educational mission here even if things like that occurred to them. So a real big part of it is from the community to help us do our job so that we can respond and include these crimes.”
Statistics utilized in this annual report are obtained from the Winthrop University Police Department, City of Rock Hill Police Department and Campus Security Authorities. Access to reports is provided on Winthrop University: Campus Police website in the Clery Act section.
