UK campus crime falls in 2025, police chief remains cautious

There were fewer instances of major crime on the University of Kentucky’s campus in 2025, according to a crime and safety report recently released by the university.

The report showed decreases in several reported crimes on campus from 2024 to 2025, including rape, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, domestic violence and drug law violations. The decrease comes after most crimes spiked in 2024.

UK Police Chief Joe Monroe said he’s pleased to see the reduction.

“While any reduction is very encouraging, we have to think about the fact that it doesn’t tell the complete story,” Monroe said. “While we’re happy to see those numbers go down, we’re optimistically cautious on that because it’s just one year that it’s gone down.”

Monroe said the department looks at the last three years of data, which shows mostly similar numbers in 2023 and 2025, with the spike in 2024. He believes strengthening the connection between the police and the campus community has helped lower the crime numbers.

“We’re encouraging them to report crimes, we are encouraging them to build support with the police department so they feel comfortable coming forward and talking to us about whether it’s a situation or actually filing a criminal report,” Monroe said.

There were 24 reported on-campus rape incidents in 2025, a 33% drop from 2024. Sexual assaults on university campuses have been frequently discussed in recent weeks after alleged incidents Cornell University and Louisiana State University. Attention has been called to whether UK does enough to address issues: Popular actress and UK alumnus Ashley Judd accused the university of being silent over student sexual assaults earlier this week.

“We don’t do victim blaming or survivor blame,” Monroe said. “We believe the reports that come in, we investigate them, we present them to the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office.”

“Our biggest thing is we need everybody, to look out for each other, and by looking out for your buddies that you go out with or your girls that you go out with are very important,” Monroe said.