The ISU Police Department has increased its public outreach programs, keeping the number of crimes on and around campus relatively steady, showing only a small increase.

The information gathered is from ISU Police and comes from its yearly statistics of incidents and arrests on and around campus.

From 2007 to 2011, ISU Police saw a slight increase in the number of offenses. 

An offense can range from a citation to an investigation of a crime, which can lead to an arrest.

With 1,959 offenses in 2007 and 2,280 in 2011, Jerry Stewart, chief of ISU Police, said the reason for the slight increase in offenses could have been caused by any of a number of factors.

“People being more aware of what’s going on around them and the amount of people on campus makes a difference,” Stewart said.

The number of arrests

in 2007 totaled 906, leading to a slight increase to 1,379

in 2011.

“The more people there are and the more people to report issues leads to more arrests,” Stewart said, providing his reasoning as to why offenses on campus have  shown an increase.

ISU Police offers many crime prevention outreach programs to faculty, staff and students during orientation sessions, upon request and when a program is considered necessary.

Officers present information and training on various subjects pertaining to the college environment, such as alcohol and drug awareness, sexual assault response, and threat assessment.

“We want to educate people and encourage people to contact us if something is going on,” said Lt. Elliott Florer.

Since January, ISU Police has offered 130 presentations and educated more than 24,800 participants.

“The more people we educate and encourage to call us will lead to an increased amount of incidents and arrests,” Florer said. “We want that. We want to help people and help prevent problems from getting out of hand.”

Staff and students are encouraged to report concerns in and around campus to ISU Police on the nonemergency number at 515-294-4428 and, in the event of an emergency, to call 911.

“If you see something, say something,” Stewart said.