Crime reported across all four campuses dropped in nearly every category between 2006 and 2007 — with University-wide declines in reported aggravated assaults, burglaries and liquor-law offenses — according to ASU’s annual crime statistics report, released last week.

The declines came as ASU’s on-campus student population grew, but Jay Spradling, assistant chief of ASU police, said some of the drops could be due to a smaller police presence and less active enforcement last year.

“We had a lot of vacancies last year,” Spradling said. “Our staff was much lower than it is this year.”

ASU’s crime rate was less than one violent-crime incident per 1,000 students in 2007, and about 17 incidents per 1,000 students in the category of crimes against property, according to the statement.

Many factors contribute to crime trends, and it is difficult to draw conclusions based on year-to-year statistics, Spradling said.

But he said he finds it encouraging that categories like violent crime have seen declines.

“I do think it’s a positive thing that our violent crime has gone down because that’s something that’s not proactively enforced,” he said.

Across the four campuses, there were 20 reported aggravated assaults in 2007, down from 24 in 2006, according to the report.

Liquor law arrests declined at three campuses, while the Downtown Phoenix campus had two alcohol-related arrests in 2007, compared with none in 2006.

There were 255 liquor law arrests across the four campuses in 2007, compared with 387 in 2006, according to the report.

And drug-law arrests also declined, with 132 arrests across the four campuses in 2007, compared to 181 in 2006.

At the Tempe campus, both liquor arrests and drug arrests saw declines of about 30 percent each between 2006 and 2007, according to the report. Both categories were at three-year lows.

Liquor law violations referred for disciplinary action declined by more than 30 percent at the Downtown and Tempe campuses.

These violations are alleged alcohol-related offenses reported without an arrest to University officials for subsequent disciplinary action.

These referrals roughly doubled at both the Polytechnic and West campuses. Overall, the University saw a decrease to a total of 1,113 from 1,717.

The report also noted two hate crimes at the Tempe campus in 2007, the only ones to be reported at any of the four campuses between 2007 and 2005.

This school year, Spradling said he anticipates more arrests for alcohol and drug law violations.

“Our staffing is considerably better this year than it has been in the past few years,” he said.

ASU police have also aggressively enforced alcohol laws on campus since the beginning of the school year, Spradling added.

“Our alcohol enforcement is way up,” he said.

History freshman E.J. Engle, who lives on the Tempe campus in the Palo Verde East residence hall, said he saw a larger ASU police presence in the residence halls during the first few weeks of the school year.

The heavy enforcement contributed to fewer people consuming alcohol on campus, he said.

“Once they got in trouble the first time, they kind of got the message,” he said.

Reach the reporter at matt.culbertson@asu.edu.