Computer Assisted Reporting — University Arrest Data for 2020
Arrest data has been released by the Florida International University, Florida State University, and the University of Central Florida police departments for the 2020 calendar year.
An analysis of the data shows several different findings, with Florida State University (FSU) seeing more total arrests than the University of Central Florida (UCF) and Florida International University (FIU), with 86.4% more arrests than UCF and 88.9% more arrests than FIU. Despite this, FIU and UCF have over twice the amount of students enrolled at their university than FSU has, according to student enrollment data posted to fiu.edu, ucf.edu and fsu.edu.
There were some outliers in the data, with FSU seeing an exorbitantly high rate of drug arrest and liquor law violations as compared to the other two universities. FSU reported 72.5% more drug arrests than UCF and FIU combined. According to crimegrade.org, Tallahassee is in the 17th percentile for drug safety, meaning 83% of cities in Florida are safer than Tallahassee in terms of drug crimes. As for liquor laws, FSU had 200% more liquor law violations than UCF, with FSU reporting 40 violations and UCF only reporting two. On a similar note, UCF saw 54.7% more DUIs than FSU and FIU. FIU reported zero DUI and liquor law violations during the 2020 year.
“I think that there should be more courses to help teach students about safe ways to handle their alcohol, and especially not to drink and drive,” Freshman Francis Rodriguez-Diaz said. “It’s a scary thing, especially knowing that people can literally die from it.”
UCF requires all incoming freshmen to complete an online alcohol course through EVERFI, which teaches freshmen the basics of safe drinking habits and behaviors while under the influence. It also touches on driving while under the influence, and how much blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is needed for an individual to be convicted of a DUI. However, Rodriguez-Diaz feels like this instruction is not enough.
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As for the rest of the reported crimes, UCF saw four cases of burglary and 16 cases of larceny, with FIU only reporting two larceny cases and FSU reporting none for both crimes. On the other hand, FSU saw two cases of counterfeit/forgery, with UCF and FIU reporting none for the 2020 year. Several crimes were reported as “None” across the universities, such as manslaughter, arson and abduction, to name a few.
“I think it’s crazy, I think it’s sad, because we’re adults. We’re college students, and I just wonder, why can’t we just have the mindset to act accordingly?” Freshman Jayla Harris said. “There need to be more resources for people to reach out and talk to someone if they feel like they’re going to do something that could probably get them arrested.”
Overall, FIU had the lowest rate of arrests, with only 29 reported arrests compared to 229 at UCF and 259 at FSU. FIU did report one case of robbery that neither UCF or FSU reported.
In 2015, the universities reported 1,457 arrests compared to 512 in 2020, a 64.9% increase in arrests. Many crime trends stayed the same, such as larceny, vandalism and weapons violations. Some crimes stayed the same in reporting zero arrests, like embezzlement, bribery and gambling. However, drug arrests were much more prevalent, with 387 in 2015 versus 102 in 2020, as well as DUI arrests decreasing by 50% in the past five years.
These crime trends show what kinds of issues communities face throughout the Florida University System. With most of them being on the decline, this suggests that more students are becoming aware of crime with less of them committing crimes.
We reached out to UCFPD and are waiting on a comment.
