Crime stats comparing Florida A&M and FSU with other universities rank the two schools near the top when computing how many crimes might have occurred if there were a hundred thousand students on campus. The result? Both schools are relatively safe.

Rankings:
1)New College
2)Florida A&M
3)Florida State
4)Florida International
5)Central Florida
6)Florida Atlantic
7)North Florida
8)South Florida
9)U of Florida
10)Gulf Coast
11)West Florida

Florida A&M University has recorded eight serious crimes since January. Florida State about 40. FSU student Jessica Beaugriss is from Miami and feels safe, most of the time.

“During the day I feel safe because there’s enough people on campus to make me feel safe. But at night, most of the time I feel unsafe.”

At FAMU, which was hit by a racist pipe bomber a decade ago, student Charles Reddrick says there is also a good feeling.

“I feel pretty safe.”

Here on the FAMU campus there have been eight reports of crime this year. That means your chances of being a victim are about one in 1,500. At FSU, about one in about 700 students is likely to be a victim.

FAMU has cut its crime by 72 percent since last year. Police Chief Calvin Ross says most of the problems are caused by non-students.

“We put officers out there to try to identify these individuals. We were stopping individuals who were acting suspicious, stopping vehicles.”

And junior Janelle Lee Chee has noticed.

“It’s not that they stand about the campus, but you can see their vehicles parked. And they park them in areas where they did have a lot more crime last year. So I think that had a big impact.”

Both FAMU and FSU use emergency notification systems to let students know if there is a problem on or near campus.

In addition to counting crimes on campus, Universities must also report crimes in surrounding areas. That has given tiny New College in Sarasota the distinction of having the most crime of all 11 state schools.