Crime reports have spiked around Lane Community College’s downtown Eugene campus.
2018 data for LCC’s downtown campus shows 24 crimes in public spaces adjacent to academic areas. That’s up 155 percent from 2016, which had three incidents.
LCC’s Public Safety Director, Lisa Rupp, says while that represents an uptick, the numbers reflect in reports sent to her department by Eugene Police.
"We have to count public property. So property adjacent to our properties, the sidewalk, and the street. Recently they’ve had a lot more working in the downtown core, and that might be why those numbers had risen.”
In short, Rupp says increased police presence could yield more arrests, and the incidents occurred outside downtown campus buildings. The most frequent crimes last year were 14 drug or alcohol related cases, followed by three incidents each of rape and robbery.
As for hate crimes, none have been reported so far on Lane Community College’s main campus in Eugene this year.
In the latest annual security report provided under The Clery Act, four cases of hate crimes were reported between 2017 and 2018. Rupp says none happened on campus.
“Somebody had written a swastika and hate speech against sexual orientation on someone’s vehicle and they drove it here," recalls Rupp.
"And then someone wrote on a vehicle something derogatory against someone’s sexual orientation. Someone sent an employee some derogatory anti-African-American mail. Another one was a flyer found off campus and brought to campus, had to do with religion.”
Drug and alcohol offenses, stalking, and motor vehicle theft were the most commonly reported incidents on LCC’s main campus in the last three years. But Rupp says overall, LCC campuses are safe for students and staff.
Note: Lane Community College is the license holder for KLCC.
Copyright 2019, KLCC.
