“Compared to our peers, I think we’re a pretty safe campus.” 

This is the view of JCU Chief of Police Jeffrey Daberko regarding campus safety. His views are mirrored by multiple students. 

Ella Soder ’29 said, “I know John Carroll does a lot for their students and I always feel like JCU PD is accessible and easy to reach.”

Aurelien Marly ’28 also feels safe at JCU. “I feel really safe here. I’m from France and I think it’s safe here, in the country and in the neighborhood. For me, I don’t have any problems.”

Bailey Woodruff ’29 also agrees, even in light of a situation where a suspicious person was on campus. “That person was trying to get into the Campion, Murphy and Dolan Hall, so that’s obviously nerve-wracking. But overall I feel safe on campus, especially with it being so small. You know that there is always a place to turn to.”

These opinions are rooted in increased safety measures that the university has put in place to keep students and faculty protected both on and off campus. 

Most recently, JCU Student Government and Student Body President Ryan Moore announced that the university has invested in a new safety app called AppArmor, which “includes a mobile blue light, emergency alerts and notifications, the ability to report tips or safety concerns anonymously, a “Friend Walk” feature for check-ins, campus resources and emergency contacts, maps and procedures and even a “get out of a date” option.”

Additionally, Daberko said that an armed security guard and cameras were added to the Notre Dame lot in the fall and spring of 2024, respectively, to combat the series of car break-ins and thefts that have occurred in the JCU community. According to Chief Financial Officer Robert Connors, the university spent $25,626.60 and $53,807.22 last school year on camera rentals and overnight security, compared to $2,813.77 and $2,961.75 in 2023-2024.

Safety measures as a whole have been supported by JCU PD, which employs 15 officers. This includes a mix of full-time and part-time police officers and security officers. 

With these safety measures in place, one has to wonder, do the numbers in the safety report reflect these strides for better safety? As per the latest yearly federally mandated safety report put out by JCU late September for the 2024 calendar year, there were reported crimes on campus, residence halls, non-campus and public property and then those that specifically occurred on campus. As Daberko said, public property refers to “any public property that is immediately adjacent to campus (the public sidewalk in front of Hamlin Hall for instance).” Non-campus refers to “property controlled (meaning owned or leased) by the university that is not part of the “main” campus.” One example is the Notre Dame lot.

The following charts reveal what crimes were reported during the 2024 calendar year and how those numbers have changed since 2022. The report has multiple categories of crime, but only the categories with reported instances in 2024 will be displayed. 

These reports show incidents only in the categories of sexual assault—rape and stalking on campus in 2024. For some context on these numbers, Kent State University, a large state school, reported 13 instances of forcible rape and 12 instances of stalking on their main campus in 2024. Baldwin Wallace, which has a similar size to JCU, reported zero instances of rape and zero instances of stalking on campus in 2024. Case Western Reserve University, with a campus close to JCU, reported four instances of rape and seven instances of stalking on their campus.

This past year, rape and stalking were two of the main crimes reported, yet at Baldwin Wallace there were no instances of these crimes. In fact, BW had very little crime reported on their campus at all in 2024. Perhaps its safety measures could be a model for other schools to follow to eradicate similar crimes.

Looking back on JCU, the motor theft instances must be mentioned as this has been a large issue at the university in recent years. While these did not occur on campus this past year, there were still three instances on non-campus and public property. There have also been a series of break-ins regarding vehicles.

Daberko, the chief of JCUPD since Jan. 2023, clarified these statistics. He said the two cases of rape on campus involved “issues of consent” and that all parties involved were identified, so JCUPD did not alert students because it did not feel it was an ongoing threat. If there is ever an instance of an ongoing threat to campus, Daberko ensured that students would be notified.

The case of stalking was social media-based, which prompted Daberko to reinforce that students should “be careful of who you share your information with.”

Lastly, the auto thefts were parking lot-related. Daberko said that there have been no break-ins at the Notre Dame lot this school year.

For students worried about their car being broken into or stolen, he gave the following advice: “Make sure your car is locked” and “don’t leave valuable stuff visible like laptops or backpacks.”

He also commented on other safety concerns on campus, such as the recent incident where RAs had to remind students to be cautious of their surroundings and to not let unfamiliar individuals into the building due to someone lurking on campus and a potentially missing student. The incident involving the unidentified person was taken care of by JCUPD and the potentially missing student was really a child who went to talk to a JCU police officer, not a student. All of this prompted Daberko to encourage students to report any suspicious activity.

He further advocated for transparency in safety reports, sharing that it is suspicious if schools report nothing.

Analyzing the report itself further, it also highlights arrests and referrals related to liquor, weapons and drug laws. The following charts from the report highlight the occurrence of arrests and referrals related to these areas specifically on campus.

While there were no arrests made in 2024 regarding liquor, weapons or drugs, there were close to 100 referrals for liquor and drugs combined.

There was also a large increase in drug law referrals from 2023 to 2024, and Daberko commented on why this could have occurred, saying “drug and alcohol stats often fluctuate. As we get bigger, first-year classes numbers tend to go up as the number of students goes up. That would be my theory, there could be other explanations.”

Comparing this to a school of a similar size, Baldwin Wallace had zero arrests in 2024 regarding liquor, drugs or weapons violations, and only 9 referrals for liquor violations (zero for drugs or weapons).

As a final thought from Daberko, he added: “The campus is expanding…so we’re trying to expand along with it. But, we need your help. The more you can help us focus our attention where it needs to be…the more help from the campus community, the easier our jobs are.”