Bill would open crime blotters to public

A bill requiring campus police departments to release a complete daily crime blotter will be introduced to the state senate by the end of next week, the bill's sponsor said yesterday. The bill would strictly prohibit screening the names of students charged with committing a crime against another student -- a practice the bill's advocates say is commonplace at colleges and universities across the state. If passed, the bill would also require the University to change the way it handles inquiries about campus crime. Currently, students cannot see daily crime reports and names of students charged with crimes on campus. In addition, University Police do not release full descriptions of suspects in answering questions about crimes. Many schools, including the University, justify withholding crime reports, claiming either that disclosure violates federal laws or that, because they are not public institutions, the reports are not public records. State Sen. Richard Tilghman (R-Bryn Mawr) said yesterday the bill will be introduced in the next ten days, adding the bill would have been introduced sooner had the capital's computer systems not been shut down for a few weeks. He said the bill is not "terribly radical" and that its "time has come." "I can't imagine a great groundswell of opinion against it," the state senator said. But he would not predict whether the bill would become law. It is not known yet whether or not the University will lobby against the bill. Assistant Vice President for Commonwealth Relations James Shada, one of the University's lobbyists in Harrisburg, was not available for comment yesterday. The Massachusetts bill was written and spearheaded by Harvard Crimson editor Joshua Gerstein, and Spiegel said yesterday that after learning of Gerstein's success, he decided to push for a similar law in Pennsylvania. "Several student newspapers around the state, including ours, have had problems getting information on crime to students because campus police claim their records are not public," Spiegel said. "A situation in which the police control what information goes out to the students is very dangerous." He added that Security On Campus -- which was founded by Constance and Howard Clery in 1986 after their daughter Jeanne was brutally raped and murdered in her dormitory as an undergraduate at Lehigh University -- convinced Tilghman to sponsor the bill. Howard Clery, who serves as president of Security On Campus, said he is pleased Tilghman is introducing the bill, adding he is certain it will pass because of the success the Massachusetts bill had. "[In Massachusetts] lobbyists tried to fight it, but they were . . . hounded by the student press and the Boston press," said Clery, whose group lobbies for free access to crime reports nationwide. Once introduced, the bill would be sent to a committee -- either the Judicial Committee or the Education Committee, Tilghman said, by the president pro tempore of the state Senate. The committee would then study the legislation, suggest modifications and then vote on whether or not to send the vote to the entire state Senate floor. Tilghman added he does not yet have a sponsor for the bill in the state House of Representatives and said he did not know when the bill would be introduced to the House.

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