The Geneseo University Police released the annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report in May, as federally mandated by the United States Department of Education The 2012 report includes statistics regarding murders, sexual offenses, aggravated assault, motor vehicle offenses and arson. According to University Police Chief Sal Simonetti, it also includes the amount of arrest and conduct referrals regarding violations of liquor, drug and weapon laws.
University Police compiles information about incidents that happen on campus and at some off-campus locations, such as recognized sorority and fraternity houses.
“A couple of years ago, [the U.S. Department of Education] changed the regulations so that we could combine the Annual Campus Security Report with the Fire Safety Report,” Simonetti said. “It used to be that the folks dealing with fire safety had to put out their own report.”
University Police then took on the responsibility of including the fire safety information in the campus security report.
“Essentially, the report stems from an incident that occurred at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania many years ago to a student named Jeanne Clery who was sexually assaulted and murdered in her dorm room,” Simonetti said.
Clery’s parents pushed for federal legislation and eventually were successful. In 1990, the Clery Act was signed into law.
According to Simonetti, the act required that any federally funded university or college in the U.S., which includes about 99 percent of all institutions, must disclose crime statistics that occur on campus.
For the past two years, University Police has included the Campus Security and Fire Safety report in the first-year students’ orientation package and distributed the material to every new faculty member. University Police also released the information online and emailed it to students near the start of the fall semester.
“There’s no significant changes [between this year and last], which is good,” Simonetti said. “We have a relatively low crime rate on campus.”
He said that the most common crimes on this report are burglaries.
“I think it’s an opportunity to provide information to the campus community so they know how safe they should be and feel while being here,” Simonetti said.
The 2012 report can be found online at www.geneseo.edu/police on the left sidebar. There are also print copies at the Office of Admissions and the University Police Department.
Past years’ reports are not available online, but print copies are also available from the University Police Department.