Editorial: Campus Crime: Off the Record

So what do they have to hide? Why do they insist on keeping police reports confidential? The University Police Department claims that because it is a private agency, it does not fall under state open records laws. But clearly, University Police are given full law enforcement power by the state -- they can arrest people, they carry guns, they conduct investigations -- and therefore are a public actor. Furthermore, any organization that can carry guns on the street and arrest people should be accountable to the press and the public. When such organizations are not totally open to review and inspection, abuse of power may occur. Currently, University Police do not give full descriptions of crime suspects to the campus community -- you may have noticed that descriptions of guns are often more complete than descriptions of perpetrators whose race is never given. Is this the best way to inform the public and put the brakes on crime? Also, University Police has recently decided not to release names of people whom they have arrested until arraignment, which is usually days later. As soon as the police take away someone's freedom, it should be public knowledge. Anything less brings to mind memories of midnight raids on political dissidents by Felix Dzherzhinsky's KGB agents. The Daily Pennsylvanian has repeatedly asked University Police to provide daily crime reports in full. We have repeatedly been rebuffed. Last semester, an attempted rape was reported at a fraternity house with a history of sexual harassment. But the University community did not find out about this report until at least a week after it was filed. In the meantime, countless women visited the fraternity house without knowing of this report. Is this the best way to ensure the safety of University students? Almost always, the student newspaper first hears about sexual assaults and rapes that occur on or near campus through the grapevine. Nailing down specifics is like pulling teeth. Information that is public record is never volunteered. For example, we first learned of a reported sexual assault in the Medical School complex last semester through the rumor mill and were not informed fully by the University Police until weeks after the incident. Allegedly, a building guard who most students would trust implicitly had assaulted a student, yet no one was informed of the allegation for days. As a result, we printed a story that contained misinformation. As the situation now stands, we are required to call the University Police daily and rely on them to tell us every crime that they think might be of interest to the University community. This system makes it very easy for them to delay notification for hours, days, weeks or indefinitely. As a result, the DP, along with campus crime activists, has asked the Pennsylvania Legislature to pass a new law supplementing existing open record laws to make explicit the obligation of campus police forces to allow public inspection of their crime reports. The state of Massachusetts passed a similar bill this summer. The problem is not limited to the University. The Lehigh University student newspaper, The Brown and White, has repeatedly run into the same problems. This, even after a Lehigh student was brutally raped and murdered in her campus dormitory room by another student. Just two weeks ago -- five years after the incident -- Lehigh opened its police reports for public inspection, but still insists on blacking out the names of students. If you agree that you have the right to know all the details about crime that occurs on your campus, write to the bill's sponsor: State Senator Richard Tilghman, 406 Gatcomb Lane, Bryn Mawr, PA, 19010. It's time to put campus crime on the record.

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