SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - The University of Illinois in Springfield sampled 8,000 households for the 2019 Sangamon County Citizen's Survey.

Among the questions asked was whether people feel safe or unsafe walking alone at night in their neighborhood alone.

Jailyn Borum, who lives in Springfield, said she overall feels safe in town, but can see how some people feel otherwise.

"Downtown at night, there's just not a lot of people around," Borum said. "It just makes for like more scary situations to happen, or unseen accidents to happen."

The survey said 65 percent of people felt safe, while 35 percent felt unsafe.

Angela Denney, who also lives in Springfield, said she thinks people in general feel less safe in society now than ever before.

"I think just as any other downtown city, there's times where you might feel unsafe," Denney said.

The number of people who feel unsafe has gone up. In 2013, only 18.2 percent of people reported feeling unsafe walking alone at night.

Even though the number of people who feel unsafe has gone up nearly 17 percent in the last six years, the Sangamon County Sheriff, Jack Campbell, said there are no statistics that show crime has risen.

"Crime in Sangamon County has remained fairly flat for quite a period of time," Campbell said. "It's a safe county (and) the city of Springfield is a safe place to be."

The sheriff's office keeps a running total of crime to watch for new trends and from its data, Campbell said there's only two areas of crime that have risen in the past six months.

"Our biggest ones are thefts and burglaries," Campbell said. "The numbers don't show that Springfield, Sangamon County is less safe."

The sheriff, along with Springfield residents, said unsafe feelings could be attributed to more publicized crimes. They even blame social media for creating fear.

"People go right to their phones when a crime occurs," Campbell said. "It gets shared and spread and it kind of takes on a life of its own."

The said if someone feels uneasy in an unfamiliar part of town, they should always trust their gut.

"Springfield is a low crime rate area," Campbell said. "I know there are studies that claim differently, but I think for those of us that have been here our entire lives, and those of us in law enforcement, (we) don't really buy into that."