The recently released 2003 Clery Report for UC Santa Barbara shows burglary and forcible sex offense rates have increased, while liquor and drug offense rates have decreased at the university.

Under federal law, the report is released each year and lists campus community crimes. In this year’s report, the rate of reported burglaries on campus doubled, having gone from 29 reported incidents in 2002 to 58 accounts in 2003. UCPD Public Information Officer Sgt. Mark Signa said the increase of reported burglaries had to do with more and more students bringing laptops and leaving their doors unlocked.

“There is nothing we can do if we can’t convince the students to lock doors,” Signa said. “It’s easy to steal a laptop and sell it.”

Despite the large increase, other schools’ Clery Reports showed that UCSB ranked seventh in reported burglaries UC-wide, with UC Santa Cruz taking last at only 55 reported burglaries in 2003, and UCLA ranked first with 265 reported burglaries.

UCSB does, however, have the second highest reported bike theft rate with 243 thefts in 2003. UC Davis tops out at a total of 369 reported bike thefts in 2003.

Reported forcible sex offenses went from only one account in 2002 to nine accounts in 2003. The highest number before the 2003 mark was in 1999 with five accounts. A forcible sex offense is classified as an offense that includes forcible rape, forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object or forcible fondling. Non-forcible sex offenses include incest or statutory rape.

“A lot of that is sexual battery,” Signa said. “Those change from year to year … Unfortunately, a lot of cases don’t get reported.”

Signa attributed the abnormal increase in sexual assault cases to a fall 2003 incident involving a UCSB freshman, Edidiong Udo, who allegedly groped five women in the university-owned Francisco Torres Residence Hall.

Since that incident, many new security procedures have been added to Francisco Torres, said Rami Hana, a representative of the Residence Halls Association.

“[Residential Services] hired additional CSOs to work the graveyard shift at Francisco Torres, and there are now desk attendants 24 hours a day,” Hana said.

In addition, the 2003 Clery Report shows a drop in both drug and liquor law referrals. Drug law referrals decreased from 163 in 2002 to 102 in 2003, while liquor law referrals dropped from 790 in 2002 to 616 in 2003. In cases of referrals, a student is sent to the Dean of Students for disciplinary action after having violated state law or University policy.

But, Signa said, it was hard to find trends in some of these reports as the numbers may vary from year to year and police officers may take interest in different areas of crime from time to time.

The Clery Report has come out each year since 1999, after the federal government passed the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act in 1998. It requires all colleges and universities receiving federal funds to report their campus community crimes each year. It was originally titled the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990 and was pushed forward by the parents of Jeanne Clery, who was murdered at Lehigh University in 1986.

The Clery Reports for the UCs are compiled at a different UC campus each year. The 2003 statistics were compiled at UC Berkeley.

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