The UofM’s campus police have been working to maintain its safety record since the university was named Tennessee’s campus in 2018.
Assistant Chief Derek Myers said the UofM has been upholding its safety record for several years.
“We have been stable in the overall number of reports and the crime rate on campus for several years, which means we have continuously had one of the lowest overall incident rates among the 10 largest universities in the state,” Myers said.
Myers said Campus Police has partnered with the Memphis Police Department to keep track of crime reports on and off-campus.
“We have a mutual assistance agreement with MPD that allows us to track data off-campus and help MPD out in the neighborhoods around campus, which in turn helps the campus stats because we know opportunists don’t stop at the campus border,” Myers said.
The UofM reported a 13 percent decrease in all incidents of crime in its 2018 Campus Security and Fire Safety Report. While the official TBI Crime on Campus Report for 2019 has not been published, Myers said most incidents have remained low, except for automobile theft.
“Crime involving automobiles is up for every jurisdiction, including ours,” Myers said.
Myers said because of the uptick in automobile incidents. Students should be cautious when leaving their vehicles unattended.
“People leaving their car unlocked and leaving valuables in the car leads to greater thefts from vehicles,” Myers said. “People leaving cars running and unattended, warming the car in the winter, for example, contributes greatly to auto theft.”
Campus police have been relying on the UofM’s security cameras to track down suspects.
“We also have 800 cameras which help us identify suspects and suspect vehicles when incidents occur,” Myers said. “Our detectives also follow up on every report we take, trying to identify and prosecute offenders.”
Myers also reported that the campus police had few incidents of drug and alcohol complaints on campus.
“While we do take some drug and alcohol complaints, most of the incidents reported to us involve simple thefts, like leaving bookbags, cell phones and laptops unattended,” Myers said.
Bria Scott, a music business major, had her valuables stolen from her apartment at the Gather in December.
“They took all of my electronics,” Scott said. “I came back to the apartment after Christmas, and my tv, my game consoles and the camera my granddad gave were gone.”
Scott filed a report with campus police, but she said she was dissatisfied with the results.
“I thought someone would see them because they left with a lot,” Scott said. “The police checked all the cameras nearby, but they didn’t see anything, so it was frustrating.”
Scott said the burglary was her first experience with crime on campus since she enrolled at UofM.
Lakeesha Johnson, a health care services major, said that she has never felt unsafe on campus, even though she also was the victim of a crime.
“When I was a junior, my phone was stolen off a table in the University Center,” Johnson said. “I forgot it when I left, and a janitor picked it up.”
Johnson went to campus police, who quickly resolved the issue after spotting the suspect on camera. The employee was fired, but Johnson was unable to retrieve her phone because he had already sold it. Johnson said she was grateful for the officers’ quick response.
“That was the only time someone stole from me,” Johnson said. “I wasn’t expecting them to find him so fast, but they caught him the day after I filed the report.”
