Letter to the Editor | Clery Act requirements and the DPS crime log

This letter is in response to two recent articles published by the Daily Pennsylvanian on the topic of the crime log published by the Division of Public Safety. The articles have misled readers and, at times, contained incorrect explanations of the crime log requirements under the Jeanne Clery Act and the Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting Act.

As previously stated, when DPS began posting an online version of the Clery Crime Log, we took measures to secure the identifying information of juvenile offenders. DPS provided this online version as a matter of convenience for those in the Penn and University City community, although not required by either the Clery Act or the Pennsylvania UCR. Below are brief explanations of the requirements for the crime logs under both acts.

Jeanne Clery Act Requirements

DPS is required to make the crime log of reported crimes available to the public in a hard or electronic version, during normal business hours for the past 60 days. The Division of Public Safety ?provides both the electronic version on a kiosk and a hard copy at our headquarters, located at 4040 Chestnut St., as well as another ?version in The Almanac. The ?different modes of availability of the log are noted in the Annual ?Security Fire & Safety Report. ?To comply with the Clery Act, ?DPS publishes the date of the ?offense (if known), the location of the offense, the date the offense is reported, a general description of the offense (if possible) and the ?disposition of the offense. Requests for information for incidents older than 60 days can be made to the Office of the Vice President for Public Safety and will take up to 48 hours to fulfill.?

PA UCR

Under the PA UCR, DPS is required to maintain a daily log as a public record, available without cost for examination by the public during business hours and all other reasonable times. To comply with the PA UCR, DPS publishes in chronological order all valid reported offenses, the name and address of adult individuals arrested, the charges filed against those arrestees and the disposition of those charges when and if reasonably available. A paper copy of this log is available at 4040 Chestnut St. for review 24 hours a day.

In sum, DPS complies with the Clery and UCR requirements for its daily crime logs and has always encouraged members of the Penn community to educate themselves about the various incidents that occur in the area.

Maureen Rush is the ?Vice President for Public Safety and the Superintendent of Penn Police.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.