CMU Annual Security and Fire Safety Report

Carnegie Mellon recently released the 2023 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report, which contains (among a great amount of other, related information) statistics on crimes reported to the Carnegie Mellon University Police Department (CMPD) in the years 2020 through 2022.

Rates of most crimes largely stayed similar. Many crime categories had zero instances in all three years. For instance, there were no murders reported. Exceptions included the number of burglaries, which declined from 2021 to 2022, and the number of disciplinary actions for liquor law violations, which also continuously declined from 2020 to 2022. There are only a small number of incidents of any given crime type, so the trends should be taken with a grain of salt.

From 2021 to 2022, according to the report, the number of rapes reported on CMU property increased from 1 to 10. This, however, does not necessarily mean that rape actually became more common at CMU. CMUPD Officer Brandon Riddle told The Tartan that the department has adopted a broader definition of rape. CMUPD has also implemented "a new online reporting system," Riddle said. "A lot of victims in those types of circumstances don’t want to go through police,” because they are ashamed or emotionally distressed. Now, there are “victim resources they can report to” besides the police, which probably increases the number victims of rape and other sex crimes who report the incidents. “A lot of this stuff goes through Title IX,” said Officer Riddle. “We don’t even see the report, Title IX is totally confidential.” Incidents reported in this way are still included in the university’s official crime statistics (mandated by the Clery Act, which requires universities that receive federal funding to share an annual security report). This applies to some other crimes, such as stalking, which also saw an increase in reported incidents (from 13 in 2021 to 19 in 2022).