Overview
Crime statistics which are included in Green River College's Annual Safety and Fire Report
are based upon incidents reported by campus security authorities (CSAs), Campus Safety, and
local police agencies. The College is required to annually report data for the most
recent three calendar years concerning the occurrence on campus to include campus
housing, in or on non-campus buildings or property, and on public property (as those
terms are defined and interpreted for purposes of the Clery Act) for incidences of
murder, manslaughter, sexual misconduct including (forcible and non-forcible) sexual
assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking, robbery, arson, aggravated
assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft. This reporting also includes statistics
on arrests for violations of liquor or drug abuse as well as weapons possession, including
disciplinary referrals for liquor, drug, and weapon violations. If
there has also been a determination of a Hate Crime in any incidence of simple assault,
larceny, theft, intimidation, destruction of property and vandalism, then that data
is also reported. Fire data is also included for residential housing. In addition,
the college will keep a daily log to include summaries of all crime and fire activity
and make it available for the previous 60 days of reporting to the general public
within two business days unless disclosure is prohibited by law or would jeopardize
the confidentiality of the victim.
Purpose
Accurate crime reporting will assist to maximize information available so safety for prospective
and current students and prospective and current employees can make informative decisions
about their safety and security needs. Crime and Fire data collected for each calendar year
will be submitted to The Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool website during annual limited open submission dates (usually during August), and is included
in the Annual Safety and Fire Report which is posted on the Green River College's
website no later than October 1st.
Scope
This policy of gathering crime data applies to all Green River College Clery geography which
includes all on-campus locations, all Clery non-campus locations, and all Clery Public Property
locations. Residential housing also includes data on fire in the Fire Section of the Green
River College Annual Safety and Fire Report.
Definitions
Policy
The Green River College Campus Safety department is the official reporting authority at
Green River College for crimes and for the disclosure of crime statistics, including
fire statistics for campus housing. Campus Safety will collect, categorize, track,
report and disclose information regarding crimes and crime prevention in accordance
with the standards and procedures set forth by the Clery Act and in this policy. For
all reported crime incidents reported to and logged by Campus Safety, that office
will make the determination as to whether a reportable offense has occurred. This
data, along with that which is compiled from reports from local law enforcement agencies
for all Green River College Clery On-Campus, Non-Campus and Public Property is included
in the annual submission of data. Data is segregated by campus, and On-Campus Residential
crime data is included in a separate category as well as with On-Campus data for the
main campus.
Clery Geography
Clery Geography is a term which is unique to the Clery Act. These are the physical
locations from which all Clery crime data is gathered. The following are the four
categories of Clery Geography:
On-Campus: Any building or property owned or controlled by Green River College within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area and used by Green River College in direct support of, or in a manner related to the institution's educational purposes, and any building or property that is owned by the College but controlled by another person, is frequently used by students, and supports institutional purposes.
On-Campus Residential: NOTE: Residential buildings are considered a subset of On-Campus Geography, and statistics for Green River College's Residential Housing (Campus Corner Apartments) are recorded and included in two places—the OnCampus category and the On Campus Residential category. This category is only included for the main Green River College campus in Auburn. It is not included in the crime data for the other three campus locations because those sites do not have any associated residential housing component.
Non-Campus Building or Property: Any building or property owned or controlled by a student organization that is officially recognized by the institution; or any building or property owned or controlled by an institution that is used in direct support of or in relation to the institution's educational purposes, is frequently used by students, and is not within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution. Green River does not have other buildings that are owned by any student organization, but does use multiple off campus locations for many college courses, activities, and events.
Public Property: All public property, including thoroughfares, streets, sidewalks, and parking facilities that is within the campus or immediately adjacent to and accessible from the campus. All Green River College Campus locations have adjacent Clery Public Property.
The Campus Safety Office is responsible for keeping Green River College Clery geography up-to-date.
- Campus Safety will work with the Office of Vice President of Instruction to collect data on locations, dates and times of non-campus college courses, activities and events on a quarterly basis.
- Campus Safety will also work annually with the Facilities Department to identify college-owned property locations, boundaries, and any changes thereof.
- Lastly, Campus Safety will work annually with the College grants & contracts office to gather contractual language with regards to use and access to any college-owned condominiums, college-leased facilities, and any college rented facilities.
Data will be kept electronically in two locations:
- In the Clery file of the Security folder on the N-drive which can be easily accessed by College personnel who are responsible for submitting crime data
- By year in the electronic folder that is created yearly for the preparation of the
Annual Safety and Fire Report.
Any hard copy materials will be kept by the Campus Safety Office in their Clery Compliance file cabinets.
Procedure
Green River Colleges collects its' own crime and fire data, and accepts supplemental
numbers from Campus Security Authorities* (CSAs) in their reporting roles. Green River's
Campus Safety Department annually requests statistical information from the appropriate
law enforcement agencies for Clery designations of On-Campus, On-Campus Residential,
Non-campus, and Public property geography locations. Clery reporting for crimes occurring
in all Clery defined geographies and fire statistics in campus housing, covers the preceding
calendar year, January 1 through December 31 and the two calendar years prior. Campus
Safety will prepare and distribute these statistics as a part of the Green River College Annual
Safety and Fire Report to be published annually by October 1 as well as, submit required crime
statistics to ED, available online at: https://surveys.ope.ed.gov/security. Additionally,
Campus Safety will maintain these records as required by the Clery Act for 7 years.
Green River College procedures specify that aggravated assault, arson, manslaughter,
burglary, motor vehicle theft, murder/non-negligent manslaughter and robbery are to
be reported to Campus Safety and/or the appropriate local police department. Arrests
and referrals for law violations for alcohol, drugs or weapons are also included.
In cases of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking the victim
or witness may report to Campus Safety, the
local law enforcement agency, the Title IX Coordinator for students, the Title IX
Coordinator for employees, or file an anonymous report (a statistical notation absent
any names.). If there has been a determination of Hate Crime, then data for that category
will also include the type of bias in any simple assault, larceny, theft, intimidation,
destruction of property or vandalism. Anonymous reports will be reviewed regularly
for trend analysis and for year-end reporting purposes.
The Director of Campus Safety meets monthly with the Conduct Officer for Green River College Campus Corner Apartments and the Judicial Affairs Officer for the College to collaborate and review campus incidents to ensure that there is no duplication and that all incidents are being either adjudicated, referred, or dismissed. From these meetings, clarification will be made about crime reports to determine that incidences are not duplicated or doubly reported. As a result there will be an accurate collection of crime data that will be used in the annual disclosure of crime statistics for Green River College.
*CSA is a Clery-specific term that encompasses four groups of individuals and organizations associated with the college. These groups or individuals fall into the following: (1) A campus security department; (2) any individual or individuals who have responsibility for campus security but who do not constitute a campus security department (i.e. entrance monitors); (3) any individual or organization specified in an institution's statement of campus security as an individual or organization to which students and employees should report criminal offenses; (4) an official of an institution who has significant responsibility for student and campus activities, including, but not limited to, student housing, student discipline, and campus judicial proceedings. An official is defined as any person who has the authority and the duty to take action or respond to particular issues on behalf of the institution.
Daily Crime Log and Fire Log
A daily summary of all incidents reported within the past 60 days to Campus Safety
(includes both Clery and Non-Clery crime, medical aid requests, fire alarm activations,
and fires in Campus Corner Apartments, etc.) is made available to the general public
at the Campus Safety Office (and is also posted on the Campus Safety webpage). All incidents
reported are posted within two business days of the report unless the disclosure in prohibited
by law or would jeopardize the confidentiality of the victim. The involved local Law Enforcement
Agency may also withhold information from the crime log when there is clear and convincing
evidence that the release of the information would jeopardize an ongoing criminal investigation
or the safety of an individual, cause a suspect to flee or evade detection, or result
in
the destruction of evidence.
The Daily Crime Log includes: The Report Number; Date/Time Reported; Type/Nature of incident; When and where occurred; & Disposition/Parties. The Fire Log includes the date the fire was reported, the nature of the fire, date and time of the fire, and the general location of the fire (without including any personally identifiable information).
Incidents beyond 60 days can be made available within two business days upon a request to the Campus Safety Office. If a reported crime is investigated by law enforcement personnel and they determine that a crime did not occur, the log will indicate that the disposition of the crime is “unfounded.” Campus Safety Staff and Campus Security Authorities who are not sworn or commissioned law enforcement authorities cannot unfound a crime. Only sworn or commissioned law enforcement authorities that investigate the crime can make this determination.
Records Retention
Campus Safety will maintain the Daily Crime logs and Fire Logs for 7 years in accordance
to the Clery Act requirement. In addition, records to be kept include but are not
limited to copies of crime reports, arrests and referrals for disciplinary action,
timely warning and emergency notification reports, documentation of letters to and
from local law enforcement agencies, letters to and from campus security authorities,
correspondence with Clery Handbook personnel regarding Clery compliance, and copies
of notices to students and employees about the availability of the Annual Safety and
Fire Report will be retained for seven years. All documentation will be dated, and
kept in locations to be easily accessible and retrievable. NOTE: For the complete
list of the records to be retained, refer to The Handbook for Campus Safety and Security
Reporting published by the US Department of Education.
Notification of Disclosure of Crime and Fire Statistics
Each year an email notification to enrolled students and college employees is sent
providing the web site address to the Green River Annual Safety and Fire Report. This
email also includes information regarding the daily crime and fire logs and the link
where they can be found on the Campus Safety website. A statement regarding this report
and the website where the report can be found is included in all job postings (for
prospective employees), and on the admissions web page (for prospective students).
An information card posting the web address is also made available to hand out to
interested prospective students, their parents and others at Outreach events/activities.
Specific Authority
The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-315—August 14, 2008).
This act requires institutions that both participate in any federal higher education
programs and maintain on-campus housing to establish policy for reporting and categorizing
crimes that are listed in the Jeanne Clery Disclosure and Campus Security Policy and
Campus Crime Statistics Act (The “Clery Act”). Higher Education Resources and Student Assistance
Programs for Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention (20 U.S.C. Section 1011), and the Hate
Crimes Statistics Act (28 U.S.C. Section 534). This is enforced by the U.S. Department
of Education (ED).
34 CFR 668.46(a)
34 CFR 668.46(c)
34 CFR 668.46(c)3
34 CFR 668.46(c)7
34 CFR 668.46(c)9
34 CFR 668.48(c)7
Law Implemented
History of Policy or Procedure
Draft: June 30, 2016
Adopted: August 18, 2016
Revised:
Reviewed by:
Contact: George Frasier, Vice President for College Advancement Executive Director, ext. 3338
Sponsor: Dr. Deborah Casey, Vice President of Student Affairs, ext. 3328