The decrease in criminal offenses across the Oswego State campus has improved police-community relations, according to the University Police.

In the 2015 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report, student misconduct has been cut by a third over the last three years.

This report contains The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and the Campus Crime Statistics Act Information.

“Last year we ended up cutting burglaries by almost 50 percent in the residence halls,” said University Police Chief John Rossi. “We do follow-up investigations, we have officers go off and try to obtain more information. We ended up doing more walk throughs of the residence halls and we’ve seen a decrease.”

According to Rossi, arrests spike during October and April, when on-campus visitors are the highest. Last spring, the department twitched their tracking software from the “Spector-in-Justice” system to “IMPACT,” a program to analyze criminal activity.

“The report software we have is able to give us reports on dates, times, places of where things happen,” Rossi said. “In our old system we were able to get charts and pie graphs. The events that were happening we could see when they were happening and we directed our sources for those times.”

Twenty-four years ago, surging crime rates across the country permeated the Oswego State campus.

“Nationwide there were more criminal incidents…we’re a microcosm of society,” Rossi said. “A lot of the arrests during that time were not students.”

Rossi said non-student crimes have steadily dropped in recent years.

In May, the 50-year-old college tradition, Bridge Street Run, an annual pub crawl, was met with the alternative option, Ozfest. According to Rossi, UP teamed with college administrators and city officers to reform the toxic festival.

In 2014, the campus-wide celebration of students wearing white-t-shirts, marked with their local pubs became dangerous when two intoxicated students got hit by a trolley bus on West Bridge street.

Extensive complaints from the city prompted the UP and to combat underage drinking.

“We did not know what to expect,” Rossi said. “We worked very closely with SAPB. We were involved in the planning but we didn’t put any limitations on what they planned. We were aware of all the events that were going to occur.”

Increased local authorities managed the night’s activities.

“When the event actually occurred the calls were totally down,” Rossi said. “The city of Oswego had less incidents than a regular Friday night. Everyone pretty much stayed on campus.”

In 2012, the underage drinking discipline totaled 243. This dropped to 142 last year, according to the campus crime statistics presented in the annual security and fire safety report.

Four years ago, campus arrests totaled 459, this decreased to 385 the following year and now is at its lowest of 306.

“Right now this is one of the safest campuses in the state,” Rossi said. “Our officers are out there being as visible as possible. They work very hard 24 hours a day to do that. Our crime statistics are showing that our community policing initiative is paying off.”

Despite a sharp decline in on-campus vandalism and theft, underage drinking is a relatively long-lasting issue.

“Every college in the country is dealing with that problem,” Rossi said. “We are trying to combat it with education. Our officers do a lot of programs in the residence hall and work closely with the lifestyle center.

As sloping crime rates persists, next year’s Clery report will be at its lowest, according to Rossi.

“If you don’t feel safe, you can’t learn,” he said. “We have a commitment to protect New York’s future.”