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Campus crime information bill in progress
Holly Seabury, Collegian Staff
Issue date: 4/9/08 Section: News
Editor's note - The following article is the third in a week-long series covering violence on campus.
Crime on campus is reported frequently at the University of Massachusetts, but only because it is a public university.
A Massachusetts law states that complete information on burglaries, stabbings and any other illegal acts that may occur on campuses at private institutions can be withheld by campus police. Though the police make their daily logs available to the public, the campus may elect to include the bare minimum of the report rather than the true, entire story.
A new bill informally known as the Mass. Campus Crime Info. Bill would allow all information that happens on campus publicly available.
House Bill 3249 was heard by the Massachusetts legislature Joint Committee on State Administration & Regulatory Oversight last June 19, but is still in the process of being passed. Officially, the bill would "stipulate that private colleges and universities employing special State Police officers make the officers' crime reports accessible upon request, just as all public colleges and universities do under current law," according to one of the groups working to pass the bill, the Safe Campus Initiative.
The bill also intends to give community members access to objective, factual information in police officers' incident reports, "so they can better prepare and take specific precautions."
SCI, a non-profit organization and active campus safety advocate group, was formed by students from Boston University, Harvard and MIT, three of the many private schools in Massachusetts. According to their Web site, the overall mission is "to make school campuses a safer place for college students."
Current initiatives that SCI has undertaken include the distribution of alcohol and date rape drug test strips, as well as the drafting and lobbying of the Massachusetts Campus Crime Information Bill.
The other group that supports the bill is Security On Campus, Inc., a national group dedicated to issues of student and campus security. SOC is "responsible for the passage of the laws that ensure basic crime information and sound security policies for all students and staff in the country."
Crime on campus is reported frequently at the University of Massachusetts, but only because it is a public university.
A Massachusetts law states that complete information on burglaries, stabbings and any other illegal acts that may occur on campuses at private institutions can be withheld by campus police. Though the police make their daily logs available to the public, the campus may elect to include the bare minimum of the report rather than the true, entire story.
A new bill informally known as the Mass. Campus Crime Info. Bill would allow all information that happens on campus publicly available.
House Bill 3249 was heard by the Massachusetts legislature Joint Committee on State Administration & Regulatory Oversight last June 19, but is still in the process of being passed. Officially, the bill would "stipulate that private colleges and universities employing special State Police officers make the officers' crime reports accessible upon request, just as all public colleges and universities do under current law," according to one of the groups working to pass the bill, the Safe Campus Initiative.
The bill also intends to give community members access to objective, factual information in police officers' incident reports, "so they can better prepare and take specific precautions."
SCI, a non-profit organization and active campus safety advocate group, was formed by students from Boston University, Harvard and MIT, three of the many private schools in Massachusetts. According to their Web site, the overall mission is "to make school campuses a safer place for college students."
Current initiatives that SCI has undertaken include the distribution of alcohol and date rape drug test strips, as well as the drafting and lobbying of the Massachusetts Campus Crime Information Bill.
The other group that supports the bill is Security On Campus, Inc., a national group dedicated to issues of student and campus security. SOC is "responsible for the passage of the laws that ensure basic crime information and sound security policies for all students and staff in the country."
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