Clery Act Violations Result in $20k Fine for Dominican College
NEW YORK
New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced June 12 an agreement with Dominican College under which the school will reform its current system of reporting on-campus crimes and pay $20,000 to the State of New York. Cuomo also issued a letter to every college and university in New York State, alerting them that underreporting crime statistics violates state law.
The agreement stems from an investigation by Cuomo’s office into a complaint that Dominican was falsely reporting its campus crime statistics relating to sexual assaults.
The complaint was sparked by the on-campus sexual assault of freshman Megan Wright in 2006. Cuomo’s investigation found that over the course of several years, Dominican had erroneously reported the number of crimes that occurred on campus in their student handbook. It also found that Dominican did not have adequate procedures in place to ensure accurate reporting.
The agreement executed with Dominican College requires the school to pay a $20,000 fine and make the following reforms:
- Require all employees responsible for campus security to attend a training program regarding crime reporting issues including the classification and definition of crimes, the collection of crime reports, timely warning requirements and annual disclosure requirements;
- Designate officials to oversee and coordinate the collection of all campus crime reports to ensure that they are properly categorized and maintained to create an accurate crime report;
- Designate officials to ensure that crime statistics are accurately published in the annual campus crime report; and
- Designate an official who is responsible for ensuring that grievance procedures are in place for students.
In the wake of this investigation, Cuomo’s office issued a letter to every college and university in the State of New York advising them that failure to accurately report campus crime statistics violates New York law.
To read Cuomo’s unabridged press release, click here.
To read the letter to New York colleges and universities, click here.
To read Security On Campus Inc.’s response click here.
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