Posted: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 12:06 pm

On Wednesday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation released the 2009 “Crime on Campus” Report, which shows a statewide increase of crime on Tennessee’s campuses for the first time in five years. The number of offenses reported jumped a little more than 9 percent from 2008 to 2009.

There were 7,538 offenses reported in 2009 compared with 6,900 in 2008. The previous years, 2007 and 2008, showed a 6.4 percent drop, and there was a 12.5 percent decrease between 2006 and 2007.

Enrollment increased 10 percent statewide from 2008 to 2009 possibly due to economic conditions in the state and people improving their job skills with education.

Statewide larceny and theft offenses made up 38.5 percent of the total number of offenses reported. This category continues to comprise the largest number of crimes on campuses.

MTSU saw a slight decrease in this category with 269 thefts reported in 2008 and 259 in 2009 as reported to the MTSU Police Department.

Theft from a building was the only category of theft that increased on MTSU campus in the past year going from 114 in 2008 to 147 in 2009.

At Tennessee’s colleges and universities, drugs/narcotics violations increased 16 percent overall with Drug Paraphernalia increasing 18 percent. MTSU saw an increase of 63 percent with drug arrests going from 49 in 2008 to 80 in 2009.

Statewide, fraud offenses increased by 75 percent and shoplifting increased 700 percent in 2009. MTSU saw a drop in this category as well with only two reports of fraud in 2009 compared to six in 2008.

Colleges saw in increase in the number of reported rapes increase from 12 in 2008 to 17 in 2009. MTSU saw its own increase in reported rapes with three cases in 2009 and one case of forcible fondling. Only one rape was reported to MTPD in 2008.

In other crimes, the numbers of assaults on campus dropped from 52 to 49.

But liquor law violations increased to 102 in 2009 from 83 in 2008.