 "Photo: Security on Campus Inc.")
College officials have apparently turned a blind eye to a federal law that requires campus security to maintain thorough crime logs for review by anyone who asks.
David Ramirez, chief of police and director of public safety, has declined to meet with The Breeze to discuss his department’s compliance with the law. When Ramirez did not return phone calls, Monica Hernandez from safety and risk management was contacted; however, she too did not seem to take the inquiry seriously.
Ramirez did not answer questions directly on his department’s inability to maintain daily crime logs for review by anyone who requests them.
Last week, for the first time in years, Ramirez provided The Breeze with a log of crimes via an email. The log of criminal activity ranged from alleged sexual battery to posession of a shotgun on campus, and car break-ins. Crimes that are committed in neighborhoods adjacent to the campus are also required to be included in the crime log.
When The Breeze inquired why the campus police had not provided the crime reports, Ramirez said he would email all staff and faculty a compilation of crime reports every two weeks, beginning in mid-February. The first of the promised emails were sent to faculty on Thursday, March 4 at 4:16 p.m.
The nearly 20-year old federal law requiring full disclosure of crime stats on and near college campuses stems from a murder case in a Pennsylvania college, in which campus police withheld reports of violent crimes from the public.
The Jeanne Clery Act was signed into law in 1990. Freshman Jeanne Clery, 19, was raped and murdered while asleep in her dorm room on April 5, 1986 at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Penn. Clery’s parents discovered that students had not been told about 38 violent crimes that had occurred over a three-year period prior to their daughter’s murder.
Clery’s parents and other campus crime victims joined together to persuade the U.S. Congress to enact this law, which was originally known as the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990.
“Our daughter died because of what she did not know about,” said the parents of Clery in a prepared statement at the time. “We learned that crime on campus was one of the best kept secrets in the country.”
The law was amended in 1992 to add certain basic rights for victims of sexual assault. In 1998 the act was amended again to expand the reporting requirements. The 1998 amendment also formally renamed the law in memory of Jeanne Clery.
Any secondary institution that receives federal financial aid is mandated to implement and enforce the Clery Act.
The law in part states the following:
“The campus must make the crime log for the most recent 60-day period open to public inspection during normal business hours, while crime logs containing material more than 60 days old must be retained for seven years for public inspection upon two days’ notice.”
When the campus police office was called on March 1 by The Breeze requesting to inspect the crime log, employees responded by saying that Ramirez was the only person who could give permission to view the log and that he was not in the office.
Ramirez was called previously by The Breeze to let him know that the school’s website link to the Jeanne Clery annual crime report was last reported in 2007. A few days later the crime report was updated. The report on all colleges’ websites will always be one year in arrears, since the crime stats are not tabulated until the end of the year. This is why the daily crime log should be available in the campus police office.
Wade Stern, police officer of the crime prevention unit at University of California Riverside, was contacted and asked if a daily crime log was available on campus.
“Yes, we have the log in our office for anyone to view,” he said.
In addition to the crime log’s availability, the law provides that each institution receiving federal financial aid must offer “Education programs to promote the awareness of rape, acquaintance rape, and other sex offenses.” The U.S. Department of Education’s Handbook for Campus Crime Reporting states that sexual assault programs “are required” by the law, unlike general crime awareness and prevention programs. The act, however, does not mandate the content, frequency or venue of the sexual assault education programs.
On Aug. 14, 2008 the first major amendment in 10 years was signed by the President after the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007. The Jeanne Clery Act now includes a response plan that requires all colleges to “immediately notify” the campus as soon as an emergency is confirmed, unless doing so would compromise efforts to contain it.
Fines for non-compliance of the Jeanne Clery Act can range up to $27,500 per violation or the school may be suspended from participating in federal student financial aid programs.
The U. S Department of Education enforces the Jeanne Clery Act.
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