Editor’s note: This story includes mention of sexual violence or assault and other potentially triggering situations, such as violence and hate crimes. Resources are available here.
Indiana University Public Safety released its Annual Security and Fire Safety Reports on Wednesday, detailing last year’s crime rates compared to 2023 and 2022.
The report covers statistics and geographical information on crimes specified in the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act on all IU campuses over the past three years.
What was in the report?
According to the safety report, aggravated assault — an attack of one person onto someone else to inflict significant bodily harm, typically with a weapon or something else likely to lead to death or great bodily harm — was reported 21 times last year on the university’s Bloomington campus. This is more than double the 10 reports in 2023. There was a particular increase in aggravated assaults on campus, with 13 reports in 2024 compared to the three from 2023 and four from 2022.
Burglary rates — which include the unlawful entry or attempted forcible entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft — also rose, with 51 reported in 2024. Burglary rates have consistently risen the past three years, with 37 in 2023 and 28 in 2022.
There were 66 motor vehicle thefts — robbery or attempted robbery of any motor vehicle, including electric bicycles and scooters — reported on campus last year. The statistic is more than triple the 18 reports in 2023.
Arrests related to drug law violations decreased to 33. There were 62 arrests related to drug law violations in 2023 and 138 in 2022.
Reports of hate crimes at IU Bloomington also jumped last year, with eight in total after six in 2023 and two in 2022. For 2024, those included reports of four instances of vandalism characterized by racial bias, one intimidation characterized by a bias of religion and one simple assault characterized by a bias of ethnicity.
One simple assault characterized by a bias of sexuality occurred in an on-campus residence and one case of vandalism characterized by a bias of national origin occurred on a non-campus facility.
Reported rapes rose after a decrease in 2023. Last year saw 43 reported rapes, the same number as 2022. There were 31 reports of rape in 2023.
“Indiana University Public Safety is committed to providing the greatest possible degree of safety for all members of the IU community,” Hannah Cornett, an IU Police Department spokesperson, said in an email.
What is the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act?
Crimes detailed in the report must occur either on campus, in a non-campus building owned or controlled by the university, or on public property immediately adjacent to or on campus.
The reports also include 2022-24 fire statistics for university housing on each campus.
The report is made and released in compliance with the Clery Act along with the Higher Education Act and the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988. The Clery Act requires higher education institutions to report and release campus crime data, including where crimes occurred.
The act also requires colleges and universities to provide information on victim resources and disclose what policies institutions created and enforced to improve general campus safety.
The Stop Campus Hazing Act, passed by Congress in December 2024, amended the Clery Act to require hazing reports and provide transparency reports on campus hazing. Since the act was signed in 2024, the 2026 report will be the first to include related data from 2025.
