The University of Maryland Police Department and Fire Marshal’s office released the annual security and fire safety reports, revealing a rise in motor vehicle thefts and aggravated assaults in 2022.
The report, released on Wednesday, said it reflects the first year that the university returned to pre-pandemic population levels on campus.
The number of motor vehicle thefts — which includes the theft or attempted theft of golf carts, motor scooters, e-scooters and other “nontraditional” vehicles, according to the report — rose to a total of 53 incidents in 2022, compared to 34 the previous year. This is more than a 50 percent increase in total motor vehicle thefts.
E-scooters made up 43 of the 53 thefts reported in 2022.
There were also 10 aggravated assault reports, involving 18 victims in 2022, compared to two aggravated assault cases in 2021. The report defined aggravated assault as an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting bodily injury.
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Seven of the 18 victims’ aggravated assaults occurred on campus while 11 were off campus. The on-campus reports involved weapons like a gel ball blaster, a BB gun, a knife and a brick. Of the off-campus reports, five involved paint pellets, five involved a firearm being pointed at the victims during two separate road rage incidents and one was a fist fight, the report said.
UMPD also saw a major decline in the number of liquor-law violation referrals with a total of 186 referrals in 2022, a drop of about 36 percent from 2021, when there were nearly 300 referrals.
The Annual Fire Safety Report showed that unintentional fires in on-campus student housing caused more than $54,000 worth of damage in 2022. A fluorescent light with poor connection in Baltimore Hall caused $50,000 worth of damage, the most expensive of any unintentional fire that year.
