VIRGINIA — A bill that would require campus safety officers to hand over cases involving sexual assault or death to the local police has been introduced to the General Assembly. Similar bills have been passed in Tennessee and West Virginia.
House bill 2490 was presented by Representative Paula Miller, who became interested in the issue after meeting a woman whose daughter was raped at the University of Virginia and was largely ignored by campus police, The Bullet reports. The girl took herself to an emergency room, but by the time she was examined, physical evidence could not be recovered.
Miller told the news source that the legislation is not intended to make campus police seem unqualified, but to remove the danger of an incident being under-investigated if it has the potential to bring negative attention to a university.
A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 4.
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