Eastern Michigan University experienced a sizable 64 percent drop in reported burglaries between 2007 and 2008, from 133 burglaries down to 48.

EMU Police Chief Greg O'Dell credits ramped up awareness efforts on a fairly simple, but often overlooked concept: lock your door.

Yesterday, both EMU and the University of Michigan released reported crime statistics for 2008.

The statistics, required to be reported under the federal Clery Act, include crimes reported on the universities' campuses, crimes reported at non-campus buildings, such as a fraternities and sororities, and on public property contiguous to the main campus, like a sidewalks and streets.

The crimes listed are reported to campus police departments as well as city police departments with jurisdiction over non-campus areas. The statistics also include crimes reported to non-police entities, such as housing staff or campus security authorities.

Burglaries
At EMU, burglaries traditionally have been a problem around campus, which led to the creation of the "Gotcha" program several years ago. As a part of that program, police officers had been making rounds to knock on students' doors in the early evening hours, O'Dell said. If the doors were unlocked, officers left students information on burglary prevention.

O'Dell stepped up the program last year and added rounds around 4 or 5 a.m. in the residence halls. While unpopular with the students, who didn't like being awakened at that hour, it gave them extra incentive to make sure their doors were locked, he said.

Liquor law violations
The largest number of crimes reported by U-M were for liquor law violations, though liquor law violations dipped by 13 percent - from 635 in 2007 to 550 in 2008. The violations include any alcohol-related citations or arrests except for drunk driving.

Motor vehicle thefts
The statistics show a 70 percent jump in motor vehicle thefts reported by the U-M, but most of those are due to a change in the way crimes were reported in 2008, Department of Public Safety spokesperson Diane Brown said. Fifty-seven of 78 motor vehicle thefts in 2008 were reported using data from Detroit Police around the U-M Detroit Center, a satellite facility for research projects and other programming.

Sexual Assault
Included in the forcible rape statistics were sexual assaults reported to the U-M Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center (SAPAC): 44 were reported to the center in 2007 and 36 in 2008. But only seven instances of forcible rape were reported to campus or other police in 2007 and none were reported to police in 2008.

Regarding sexual assaults, EMU works with SafeHouse Center in Pittsfield Township and has counseling programs at the campus Snow Health Center, but doesn't have a center equivalent to the U-M’s SAPAC, O'Dell said. EMU's reported statistics included five instances of criminal sexual conduct reported in 2007 and four in 2008.

Hate Crime
A Clery Act amendment in 2008 expanded hate crime reporting to include instances of larceny-theft, simple assault, intimidation and vandalism.

From the U-M report, hate crimes included: one instance in 2008 of on-campus aggravated assault/ethnic intimidation with racial bias, one instance of on-campus vandalism with racial bias, and one instance of vandalism with sexual-orientation bias.

From the EMU report, there were no hate crimes reported in 2008, but past hate crimes reported included one sexual orientation-related assault and battery reported in a residence hall in 2007, and one non-aggravated assault reported in a residence hall in 2006 related to sexual orientation.

For more detailed information about EMU statistics, visit http://www.emich.edu/univcomm/emutoday/ and look under special notices.
For more detailed information about U-M statistics, visit http://police.umich.edu/docs/clery.pdf

Juliana Keeping covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at julianakeeping@annarbor.com or 734-623-2528. Follow Juliana Keeping on Twitter