The Community Safety Department provides a full range of services aimed at preventing and responding effectively to safety incidents on York’s campuses and is committed to openness and transparency in all the services it provides to the York community.
Below you will find information and statistics on the full range of safety services provided by the department, as well as monthly and annual reports on the types of safety incidents that require a response from the department’s Security Services staff.
Security Incident Statistics
2023/2024 Security Incidents - Five Year Comparison
Weekly Security Incident Logs (WSIL)
This report provides annual statistics on the types of service requests and incidents reported to Security Services or identified by Security staff on patrol. These statistics fluctuate from year to year for a variety of reasons, and are influenced by greater community engagement and awareness of the importance of reporting safety incidents, which has increased from 2016 onwards. Other mitigating factors influencing reporting of statistics include major events such as labour disruptions, the pandemic, large scale events on campus etc. The University encourages reporting of incidents and transparency of statistics to ensure robust response and prevention efforts are in place and so that the community feels comfortable reporting.
Please note, the annual figures for some categories of safety incidents listed in this report are very small and in these cases and trends can only be identified if the figures are examined over a longer timeframe.
Below is an explanation of terms used in the department's statistics reports:
REPORTED:
Reported refers to the number of incidents which occurred on or in relation to University property that were reported to York Security Services.
NOT SPECIFIED AREA (NSA):
Not Specified Area refers to incidents that have been reported to York Security Services without a specific location or the specific location is undetermined.
OFFENCE:
An Offence is any violation of Federal Laws, Provincial Statutes or Municipal by-laws.
PROPERTY CRIMES:
Property Crimes involve unlawful acts with respect to property but do not involve the use or threat of violence against a person. These include actual and attempted break and enter, theft, mischief, arson, and fraud categories.
CRIMES AGAINST PERSONS:
Crimes Against Persons involve the application and/or threat of violence to a person. These include sexual assaults, non-sexual assaults, harassment, homicide, abduction, indecent acts, intimidation, robbery, and uttering threats categories.
INCIDENTS AFFECTING QUALITY OF LIFE:
Incidents Affecting Quality of Life involve unlawful acts that do not pose a direct threat to an individual but have an impact on the perception of safety and fear of crime. These include bomb threats, disorderly behaviour, cause disturbance, smoking complaints, damage, emergency medical, fire alarms, suspicious vehicles and persons, trespass, occupations and demonstrations, and hate incident categories.
OTHER INCIDENTS:
Other Incidents include requests for information, unfounded occurrences, hazardous substances, missing persons, and motor vehicle collision categories, among others.
COLLECTION OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE STATISTICS:
Please note that the department’s sexual violence statistics only represent incidents reported to York Security Services. These statistics do not reflect incidents reported to the Centre for Sexual Violence Response, Support and Education... which is the lead intake and coordinating office for sexual violence reports and maintains its own statistics. Survivors have the option of reporting to York Security Services if they wish to in addition to reporting to the Centre.