UH CRIME
Crime by the numbers - an overall analysis
As crime continues on an upward trajectory nationwide, students and parents alike have become concerned with safety on college campuses. The concern is even more significant for universities like UH, which are in the heart of major metropolitan areas.
For schools like these, navigating campus safely can be surprisingly tricky, particularly in areas with low levels of public lighting or safety countermeasures. The issue becomes even more complicated in the case of public universities, which, as public institutions, lack the legal means to ensure physical security to the same degree a private college might be able to.
Considering these factors, this article will examine crime at the University of Houston Main Campus across various contexts by breaking down the 3,532 reported crimes over the past four years.
Section I
A general overview of crime at UH over the past four years. This section examines trends and patterns.
Section II
This section examines crime across different locations on UH main campus and surrounding areas.
Section III
This section compares the different parking options at UH main campus and the safety of each.
Section IV
The final section explores police efficacy and procedure in regard to case closure and solve rate.
Section I: UH crime in four
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A cursory examination of the above graph may lead many to believe that the University has made impressive strides in combatting crime over the past four years. Though campus police may have taken steps to alleviate crime over the past few years, the steep decline in crime from 2019-2020 is likely the result of COVID protocols.
From 2018 to 2019, the University experienced an eight percent decrease in total reports. Though it’s tempting to believe that the early impacts of COVID are the culprit in this reduction, this is unlikely. According to the UH COVID-19 website, the campus remained open for the entirety of 2019, meaning any impact from cuts to the in-person student population was likely negligible.
However, by March 2020, the University had officially fully transferred its curriculum to a remote format. UH would remain closed for the entirety of 2020, meaning that most students would not attend on-campus. This would explain the staggering 60% reduction in crimes in 2020.
Transitioning into 2021, the University made several attempts at ‘soft openings’ with varying degrees of success. By the fall of 2021, UH had returned mainly to in-person enrollment, with several exceptions for students wishing to continue online. This further reinforces the correlation between COVID-19 and UH crime stats, as from 2020 to 2021, the University experienced a 31% uptick in reported crime.
Interestingly, however, COVID-19’s impact varied across violent and non-violent crimes. During the pandemic's peak, non-violent crimes saw a massive reduction of over 70%, while violent crimes experienced only a 42% decrease.
The likely culprit for this disproportionate reduction is property crimes such as theft, burglary and destruction of property. With a significantly reduced student population comes a greatly reduced number of opportunities to steal.
Section II: Crime and where to find it
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This section will examine the relationship between crime and location and a by-the-numbers analysis of the types of crime students at UH are most likely to encounter.
The good news for Cougars is that they are far more likely to experience non-violent crime than they are a violent crime. The most common crime at UH is theft, roughly 30% of the total reports over the last four years. Burglary follows shortly after, consisting of approximately 10% of all reports made at UH.
Of the top ten crimes, only one, assault, is considered a violent crime. In four years, the University received some 207 assault reports.
The remaining seven crimes consist primarily of the type of violations many would expect to occur on a college campus. Alcohol violations, criminal mischief and other misdemeanors make up 54.32% of the top 10 most common crimes at UH, and 39% of all crimes.
To better understand UH crime, it’s essential to examine the areas in which these crimes are committed.
Home can often be a source of stress, and it appears this is doubly the case for students living on campus at UH. Clocking in at 40% of the top ten locations and 30% overall, student housing (including dorms and on-campus apartments) leads the pack for the most dangerous locations on campus by a factor of almost two.
As is the case with the campus at large, theft was once again the most common crime reported at UH living facilities. However, where campus statistics listed burglary and vehicle-related infractions as the leading crimes besides theft, assault took second place for student housing with 9.48% of all reports.
The second and third most common areas for crime will likely not come as a surprise to those familiar with UH. Parking lots took second with 17.5% of reports, followed shortly by parking garages with 7.13% of the total data.
The following section will examine data from crimes committed in and around UH parking lots and garages.
Section III: Careful where you park
Parking at the University is a controversial subject for many students. With prices for garage parking approaching $1,000 and strict enforcement leading to hundreds of dollars in fines for careless students, parking has firmly established itself as the UH campus boogeyman.
This reputation appears to have been well-earned, as criminal activity at UH is especially prevalent around both parking lots and garages. Accounting for 869 of the 3,500 reports, parking lots and garages are two of the most dangerous areas at UH.
Despite the high price, paying it may be cheaper than not. Andres Leon, a senior in his last semester as a political science major, learned that the hard way when he went to pick up a friend. When he got to his car in lot E, he discovered that his catalytic converter had been stolen.
“I heard a very loud explosion come from under my vehicle,” said Leon. “I got out and looked under my vehicle and noticed pretty much right away that my catalytic converter had been sawn off.”
Leon immediately contacted campus police, but according to him, the response from the officers left a lot to be desired.
“They seemed to question whether or not it had been stolen here [on campus],” Leon said. “He wasn’t very helpful. He told me I shouldn’t expect much since I couldn’t give an exact time frame for them to check the camera surveillance.”
The theft has Leon in a tricky situation, as he cannot afford the annual fee of the parking garage, he’s left to either pay the repair bill and hope it doesn’t happen again or go without a car for the time being.
“Because of the poor security on campus and bad lighting, I’m afraid of getting it fixed because I’m scared it’ll happen again,” Leon said.
Leon’s story is just one of the hundreds of motor vehicle burglaries and thefts in uh parking facilities over the past four years. Though the garages still make up 7% of the total crimes, the premium charged may be worth it compared to the 17% of crimes that occurred in the unsecured lots.
Leon’s complaints regarding the conduct of UHPD aren’t uncommon among students either. The data in the following section provides some context to these complaints.
Section IV: Cold cases
The final segment of this analysis will examine UHPD’s efficacy in combatting crime across campus.
The above chart paints a grim picture of the University of Houston Police Department’s ability to solve crimes and close cases. Almost 64% of all crimes committed over the past four years remain either open or active, according to UHPD’s data.
Of the remainder, only 14% resulted in an actual adult arrest, with an additional 11% simply listed as ‘closed’ with no further explanation. This means of the 3,532 cases, 2,225 remain unresolved. Furthermore, just 465 reports resulted in adult arrests.
While this certainly is concerning, the picture might be more complicated than these numbers make it seem. Other issues outside of police control, such as campus infrastructure and lighting, may play a more prominent role in the crime rate at UH than police efficiency.
Some students, such as music education sophomore Noel Manning think the University has sufficient policing, but what it does lack is adequate lighting.
“There’s plenty of cops around and everything,” Manning said. “The only thing for me is that some of the areas back towards the older part of campus don’t have a whole lot of light.”
Manning is not alone in this belief, as students on social media have echoed similar concerns. Several other posts appear across various platforms, with the majority advising students to stay vigilant while traversing the campus at night.
Lighting and policing aside, if one thing is clear, the University needs to seriously examine how it handles safety for students and faculty alike. In the wake of recent events such as an attempted arson and a bomb threat, students are beginning to doubt the University’s priorities regarding spending.
