KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation released its 2020 Crime on Campus report, showing a decrease in crime overall due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Because of the pandemic's impact, the 2020 report cannot be compared one-to-one with previous years due to the significantly different circumstances that arose from months of school closures, distance, and other measures that were implemented.
The TBI said 3,766 total offenses were reported across Tennessee's college and university campuses in 2020 -- which is down 33.5% from 2019.
While nearly all forms of offenses decreased from years prior, one type of crime did increase: burglaries. The TBI said the number of burglaries were up by 11.2% to 139 total incidents.
By month, there was a drastic drop in crime beginning during the March lockdown that lasted until universities resumed in-person classes in August. Prior to the pandemic, the months of January and February saw the most reported offenses during 2020.
Crimes began to rise again in August when many schools resumed in-person classes, but did not climb to pre-pandemic levels.
You can read the full report and see a school-by-school breakdown at this link.