A new Web site, Ucrime.com, which allows university police departments, community members and students to gather and display crime statistics, is gaining in popularity among colleges.
The site allows users to receive crime alerts and search crimes by type, location and date.
According to an article on the Student Press Law Center's Web site, Ucrime has become a major concern among college officials from large universities. The article explains that the Web site is sometimes inaccurate and the information outdated.
Ucrime was co-founded by Colin Drane, who got the idea for the site while working for its sister site, SpotCrime.com, which tracks crime in urban areas.
"Because of our work with that, and also knowing about the Clery Act, we thought that universities would be a good problem to tackle as well," said Drane in the SPLC article. Drane acknowledged that all information on the site is unfiltered and unchanged from what Ucrime gets from campus police departments.
According to the article, the 1998 Clery Act mandates that universities keep daily campus crime logs available to the community and issue annual reports of crime statistics.
Geneseo is currently not a part of the program. According to Ucrime's Web site, only four schools in New York State have signed up: Syracuse University, Cornell University, Stony Brook and SUNY Binghamton. Of the four, only Syracuse and Cornell's sites have any recorded crimes so far.
Senior Kelley Rehkugler said that Ucrime might be a positive resource for Geneseo. "It would let people know what's going on in their school and let them know that crime is maybe a bit more prevalent on campus than they think," she said.
"At this time we do not engage in crime mapping," said Geneseo Police Department Chief Eric Osganian. "It would be something we would be open to."
Geneseo's University Police work in accordance with other departments including the Village police department, Livingston County Sheriff's Department and New York State Police officers. According to the university's crime log, there have been 43 reported incidents since the beginning of the 2008 semester. The crime log, however, does not include incidents or arrests that occur off campus.