Although thousands of students have left Muncie for the summer, the University Police Department has still been seeing plenty of criminal activity in the surrounding neighborhoods and near many of the greek houses.
Over the last few years, vandalism and burglaries have been an issue, but a trend is all but clear according to Gene Burton, director of Public Safety.
According to UPD reports, there were 14 acts of vandalism and three burglaries in the summer of 2010, and 12 acts of vandalism and 22 burglaries in the summer of 2011.
From May 6 to present day, there have been 22 reports of vandalism and five burglaries.
"As you can see, especially with these two kind of crimes, it's kind of a cyclical thing," Burton said. "And it's really hard to gauge from one year to the next just what you're going to be dealing with because there's a great disparity in the numbers."
The number of vandalism is up from last year, but the greek community has been fortunate to not be included in reports from this year.
Assistant Director of Student Life Brandon Cutler, said most of the greek community houses are still occupied by their members, which serves as a deterrent of illegal activity throughout the summer.
"Even if there's no one living there during the summer, there's still somebody who checks on it regularly," Cutler said. "If they are going to do any improvements to the facility, that's when they'll do it."
Cutler said he also believes there shouldn't be too much to worry about because of the daily patrols conducted by UPD and the security systems some of the houses have installed.
"[UPD] also covers that area so they have a pretty consistent presence year around, so I don't think that necessarily changes during the summer months," he said. "Several of our groups have had security cameras and security lights installed so that is definitely a deterrent."
Although the numbers of burglaries might be down from 2011, Burton said vandalism is particularly hard to handle because of the randomness of the acts.
"Criminal mischief, the [acts of] vandalism are very difficult because often times they don't present a pattern and it's not like one person doing a specific thing," Burton said. "A lot of your vandalisms can be more crimes of opportunity and with a burglary there's a fair amount of pre-planning ... with the vandalisms, it just happens that the persons happen to be at that spot at the right time."
Burton said the best thing to do is to keep doors and windows locked and take valuables with you if you plan to travel during the summer.
"If it's something that portable and valuable like a laptop computer or something else small, take it with you if you can, especially if you're going home or going some place else," Burton said. "Taking whatever you can with you is always a good idea."
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