Campus Safety Annual Security and Fire Safety Report shows increase in liquor violations in 2019

Campus Safety’s 2020 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report showed a 59% increase in liquor violation reports that resulted in disciplinary referrals.

Nathan Kemp, Director of Campus Safety, said that this increase, from 29 in 2018 to 46 in 2019, was disappointing to see. None of the other crime statistics listed showed such a dramatic increase between the two years, but Kemp said that the increase may just be due to more people feeling comfortable enough to report violations.

“I think some of it is just a matter of reporting,” Kemp said. “It’s a matter of greater cooperation with, for example, resident assistant staff, and stuff like that as years go by.”

Nevertheless, Kemp said that the increase may spark Campus Safety to team up with Campus Life to reassess the effectiveness of Knox’s AlcoholEdu program. Kemp hopes that the numbers for the following year will show a decrease but is expecting to see the same in the rest of the crime categories due to COVID19.

The Annual Fire Safety Report shows crime statistics for the most recent full year. Since the report is released in December each year, the statistics shown are always for the year before, so the 2020 Report shows statistics for 2019. 

Kemp has not yet been able to assess the statistics for 2020, but given that the majority of campus was evacuated last March and did not return until September, Kemp hopes to see crime across the board decrease.