News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Tennessee Tech remains one of the safest universities in the state according to the TBI Campus Crime Study released Friday.
In 2020, Tennessee Tech reported less than two percent of total assault offenses statewide. That despite ranking among the 10 biggest campuses in the state. Director of News Buddy Pearson said the university police department strives to keep this number low.
“Tennessee Tech had eight assaults listed, but really seven of those were somebody saying something that instills fear causing somebody to go file a report,” Pearson said. “It wasn’t even an actual assault. We only had one actual assault on campus. And, we’re talking about a campus with over 10,000 students.”
Tech did see 69 theft offenses in 2020. Pearson said the university attributes that increase due to the pandemic making for a tough year for students.
“It’s just been one of those years,” Pearson said. “If you’re going to have some offenses show up in the crime report, larceny and theft is probably the least worrisome. No sex offenses. No stolen property offenses. Just a couple fraud cases. If there is a silver lining, yeah those were up a little more than what they normally are, but as a whole those things are pretty minor.”
Pearson said campus police believe the theft trend will not continue. Overall, crime reported by Tennessee colleges and universities decreased by 33.5 percent from 2019 to 2020 and decreased overall by 40.6% since 2017.
Offenses categorized as “Larceny/Theft” made up 26.3 percent of all reported offenses in 2020.
