ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 14, 1997 TAG: 9703140019
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: COX NEWS SERVICE
Staff writer Lisa K. Garcia contributed information to this story.
Tech police chief says it wouldn't change things for his department.
Saying that many colleges cover up the number of rapes, assaults and other serious crimes on campus, safety advocates Wednesday unveiled a bill to require more complete public reporting of crimes.
``Many schools have made a mockery of the Campus Security Act by deliberately publishing incomplete and inaccurate crime statistics, which provide the only measure of campus dangers for students and parents,'' said Ben Clery, president of Security on Campus, the most prominent advocacy group lobbying for the bill.
But Virginia Tech's police chief said the proposal would not affect how Tech operates. He said though that the campus police have to walk a careful line because of contradictions between laws on campus crime reports and privacy of student records.
The Accuracy in Campus Crime Reporting Act, introduced by Reps. John Duncan, R-Tenn., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., would:
Require colleges to maintain a public crime log detailing the nature, date, time and location of each incident reported to their campus security department.
Forbid classifying records of student criminal misconduct as ``education records,'' thus stripping them of privacy protection.
Throw open to public scrutiny campus disciplinary proceedings and records that involve any criminal allegation.
Penalize a school 1 percent of its federal aid for each omitted or inaccurate crime report.
Make the U.S. Department of Education the central repository for all campus crime statistics instead of the several agencies that collect them.
The Campus Security Act, signed by President Bush in 1991, requires colleges and universities to compile, publish and distribute annual campus crime reports.
In recent years, reports by the Justice and Education departments have shown that colleges are getting safer. But the safety advocates say these reports are ``school spun'' and leave out information.
School officials, the advocates say, conceal serious crime statistics by filing them with academic transcripts, medical records and other information that falls under the protection of federal privacy law.
Virginia Tech Police Chief Mike Jones said he believes there are some universities that "do not follow the spirit of the law" when reporting campus crimes, but that is not the case at Tech. He said the bill would not affect how his department operates at all.
"We'll report whatever they want us to," Jones said.
Figuring out what "they" want is the trick, according to Jones. The laws regulating privacy of student records and the public aspect of campus crime reports can contradict each other.
Jones said Tech's crime reports are already fairly open and the department circulates a list of daily crimes investigated and charges lodged already. The daily report does not presently include names and times of offenses, but Jones said he is seriously considering making that change.
If the bill passes, Jones said he hopes it will result in a clear-cut definition of what is to be included in campus crime reports, which simply does not exist now.
Clery said some schools purposely use the campus community to insulate the school from public scrutiny of campus crimes.
The schools created ``a parallel justice system'' in higher education, Clery said, and the bill introduced Wednesday ``will close down the loopholes.''
James Appleberry, president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, denied that schools were covering up crime statistics.
``Schools weren't trying to avoid the law,'' he said. But there ``was confusion in the way they had to report it, because they could be penalized if they disclosed information about an individual. The laws are contradictory.''
``There's certainly no reluctance to comply with this bill,'' Appleberry said.
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