Over the winter holiday, the LSU Police Department reported 20 fewer criminal incidents including thefts, vehicle crashes and damages to property than during the previous year’s break.

There were 73 total reported incidents during the break, and 33 of them were criminal. Non-criminal reports include documenting suspicious persons, medical emergencies, non-criminal property damage or other miscellaneous or information-only reports, said LSUPD spokesman Capt. Cory Lalonde.

The report showed LSUPD officers responded to 100 calls during last year’s break, 53 of which were criminal.

Lalonde said police were “always patrolling proactively,” though he attributed the decrease in crime to a quieter campus than the previous year. 

Only one vehicle burglary was reported during the break, while nine were reported last year, according to police statistics.  

“We can’t be everywhere at once,” Lalonde said about preventing crime over the holiday. “Vehicle burglaries are especially hard to predict, but overall it was generally quieter.”

Reports decreased in all criminal categories but damange to property. One more incident was reported during this break than last year. Thefts decreased from 10 incidences in 2011 to seven in 2012. Burglaries decreased from five to one, vehicle burglaries from nine to one and DWI arrests from four to two.

There were 13 traffic crashes during this break, four fewer than last year, according to the report. Only three of the wrecks this year were hit-and-runs, while six were of the same nature last year.

Wen Koay, finance junior, said he thought the East Campus Apartments security was illustrative of the “quiet break.”

“To put how safe I felt on a scale from one to 10, it was about a seven or eight,” Koay said. 

Engineering sophomore Maryssa Offlee spent the last week of the break living in the Engineering Residential College.

“The LSU Police gave a presentation about dorm safety during RA training and they did a good job with that,” Offlee said. “… Of course I felt safe, it’s LSU.”