Clery Reporting: Whose Job Is It Anyway?
Here’s how you can determine who is (and isn’t) a campus security authority at your institution.
So what questions should they ask? This will be challenging for practitioners because we typically don’t want people like coaches and resident assistants to be in a position of questioning victims. You will need to decide what guidance you provide to your CSAs regarding documenting information that is freely offered by the victim or the accused versus what types of questions you want them to directly ask the individual (recognizing again, that they cannot be compelled to answer the questions asked by a CSA, as they have the basic right to remain silent).
Read about how to properly classify incidents.
Actions You Should Take Regarding CSAs
- Provide training for all CSA’s and document the completion of the training. File the training records for a minimum of seven years.
- Send a request for statistics to all CSAs via letter or E-mail in January of each year for the previous calendar year. I recommend that you do this in January because if you wait until the following summer to gather your statistics for the previous calendar year, you will be requesting statistics from six to 18 months ago. A delay in requesting the statistics increases the chance of someone forgetting to report a crime or of leaving the institution during the gap in time between the end of the year and when most campuses actually start to compile their statistics.
- Send a crime statistic reporting form to all CSAs (with the request in January). I suggest that you create a form that requires all CSAs to respond to you, with a confirmation that no crimes were reported or with details about a reported incident.
- Develop a set of instructions/guidelines with the information you need to properly classify the crime statistics and provide that to your CSAs for their use when reporting crimes.
To download a sample letter that can be sent to CSAs, visit CampusSafetyMagazine.com/CSALetter.
To download a sample report form that CSAs can use, visit CampusSafetyMagazine.com/CSAReportForm.
To download the 2011 Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting, visit CampusSafetyMagazine.com/2011CleryHandbook.
Related Articles:
- Additional Clery Compliance Guidance
- Specific guidelines on emergency notification, emergency response policies and testing.
- Specific guidelines on missing students.
- Specific guidelines on the new fire incident reporting requirements.
- Campus Sexual Assaults: How Community Policing Can Make a Difference
- Sexual Assault Prevention Education: Getting the Message Through to Students
Dolores Stafford currently serves as president and CEO of D. Stafford & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in campus safety, security and law enforcement issues on college campuses. A new online training program for campus security authorities is available at www.dstaffordandassociates.com.
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