Season has little effect on city crime, campus crime drops

Though Bloomington crime activity has remained relatively stable, campus crime has decreased significantly during the summer months.

“The population in Bloomington is down, so crime has decreased,” IUPD Lt. Craig Munroe said. “It is slower when it comes to activity in the summer as far as illegal consumption, vandalism and thefts are concerned. We do still have other activities that have to do with special events so we do stay busy.”

And the same is true for the Bloomington Police Department.

“A quick look would indicate that actual calls for service do not seem to show any significant drop-off when students are not in town,” said Capt. Joe Qualters from the BPD in an e-mail. “Some offenses may show a decrease, such as noise violations or other nuisance-type calls, but officers are still kept busy responding to some type of call even in the absence of the student population.”

And Bloomington is no stranger to hate crimes. Vandalism hate crimes, which include hateful writings on walls and buildings, occur frequently, said Barbara McKinney, director of the Bloomington Human Rights Commission.

Racial hate crimes occur most often, and sexual hate crimes are a close second, McKinney said.

However, McKinney said that these statistics are based on what is given to them by police and individual accounts. She also said that these statistics might not be completely accurate because some incidents are never reported.

Vandalism and verbal assaults are the two most frequent hate incidents that occur in Bloomington, McKinney said. She also said that hate incidents might not be illegal, but they are still disconcerting.

McKinney said the worst period for hate crimes took place from July 2005 to June 2006, when 33 hate incidents, including both illegal and legal acts, occurred.
The time period with the fewest hate crimes occurred from July 2000 to June 2001. During that time, only four hate incidents took place.

“Hate crimes can be scary and intimidating,” McKinney said. “They vary from year to year, and they are hard to predict. The last hate crime murder happened about 10 years ago.”