The Clery Report is still a great place to start when looking to compare safety and security between schools. When you do that campus visit make sure you ask not just your tour guide but other students about campus crime and their perception of their personal safety while on campus.
Every college and university that receives federal funding is required to file a report which details information about the safety of the campus. This information is called the Clery Report. The law requiring the report has been around for over 25 years and is considered to be the foundation of campus safety.
Campus Clery Reports can range from 20-30 pages to well over a hundred pages in length for some schools. Here are a few caveats to keep in mind when reading these reports:
1) Schools that report less crime are not always safer schools. Higher figures may mean that schools are more accurately reporting crime and are dedicated to transparency. Greater figures may also mean that students have faith in the campus police and campus judicial system. Keep in mind that low crime figures may create a false sense of security for students.
2) Crimes that take place in the immediate area of the campus may not be included in campus crime statistics if the campus doesn’t get official reports from local police. The definition of non-campus property” is overly broad and unclear. Schools with multiple branch campus locations often grossly underreport crime due to no cooperation from local police.
3) Definitions of crimes required by Clery are often significantly different than those used in the Uniform Crime Report. This problem came about due to well intentioned legislators who didn’t the potential conflict and confusion created.
As parents we have supported our children and helped them make good decisions from learning to walk to learning to drive a car. We have always looked out for their safety and with the cord cutting of going off to college, safety still remains a priority in our minds. Selecting a college should go beyond academics, cost, and extracurricular activities and include looking for a college that makes safety and security a priority. Getting accurate, timely, and truthful information about college safety can be easy if you know where to look and to recognize the limitations of the government mandated information.
For Safety Solutions 4 Schools this is Wayne Silcox
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