A number of other incidents around UK’s North Campus, including two shootings and a robbery, have caused concern over campus safety.
UK Police Chief Joe Monroe said that the increase in crime at the beginning of the year was not normal, and could be because the area around North Campus has changed. In particular, bars and restaurants have been staying open later to attract customers.
“What that does is it also draws people in that aren’t students which can lead to problems,” Monroe said.
UKPD has over 70 officers and monitors roughly four thousand cameras on campus. Monroe said UK has invested over 18 million dollars into campus security in the last decade.
He said incidents on and around campus have decreased over time since the beginning of the academic year.
According to Monroe, the uptick in reported assaults does not necessarily mean more are happening. He said in the past, considerable social stigma existed around sexual assault. Now, as attitudes change, more students may be coming forward and reporting crimes when they happen.
“It’s good and bad,” Monroe said. “It’s bad they’re occurring, but it’s good they’re getting reported because almost 80 to 90% of sexual assaults have historically gone unreported.”
The bulletins are required when crimes like sexual assault happen due to the Jeanne Clery Act, which requires universities to report crime data.
The Violence Intervention and Prevention (VIP) Center is a group at UK whose goal is to decrease that stigma and eventually eliminate violence on campus altogether. Lenzi Dodgen is their acting director.
“We provide free and confidential advocacy and support to survivors here on campus,” Dodgen said. “If you are connected to the university in any way, you are eligible for VIP services.”
Many of the programs VIP runs train people to be active bystanders; people who are able to identify and safely act to prevent violence before it happens.
“What that creates is messaging in a culture where violence is not tolerated. So people who cause harm or people who do acts of violence feel less entitled or less comfortable doing that on our campus,” Dodgen said.
From a birds-eye-view, Dodgen said, incidents of violence on campus have generally gone down, but the responsibility of ending violence on UK isn’t only on VIP, UKPD or any one institution; it’s on everyone.