Security Groups Provide Campus Safety Statistics

May 1, 2007 4:17 PM

           

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, parents and students are seeking information on campus security as well as pushing security groups to release information about past incidents on campus.

Security on Campus, a nonprofit advocacy group, says a number of high schools are asking for copies of the group's "safety audit," a printed guide to help seniors evaluate campus safety along with other factors as they make their college choice.

Experts emphasize that there is no way to anticipate an event like the Virginia Tech shooting, but that the two big issues highlighted -- campus mental health services and security -- are topics every student should care about.

About 13 percent of university students and 25 percent of students at liberal arts colleges use mental health services, according to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America.

Campus crime varies widely by school, but is more widespread than many students realize. Among about 17 million college students, institutions reported relatively few criminal offenses in the category of murder or non-negligent homicide: just 15 on campuses in 2004, and 48 overall, according to federal figures.

But a large community of peers living together makes colleges more vulnerable to other types of crime. On-campus alone, there are nearly 40,000 burglaries and more than 3,600 forcible sexual assaults per year.

Experts say there are questions students and parents can ask during the college search to evaluate a college's mental health and security resources.

A federal law called the Clery Act requires colleges to release detailed statistics each year on campus crime. Statistics for a particular campus are available from the U.S. Education Department's Web site at www.ed.gov, or the Security on Campus Web site at securityoncampus.org.

During campus visits, parents and prospective students should think about security. The "campus audit" published by Security on Campus suggests a number of questions, such as "do dorm rooms have safety chains and dead bolts? Are doors left propped open? Are there regular security patrols?" The audit also suggests asking colleges about their parental notification policies when, for instance, a student is accused of stalking?

Parents and students should also get information about the campus police force. At some schools, police are sworn officers with full arrest powers who are as well or better trained than their municipal counterparts. Elsewhere, they are more like private security guards who have to call on better-trained law enforcement in a crisis.

Parents should ask whether the campus police force is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. If so, the campus police have gone through a rigorous evaluation, and are at least on par with a well-trained municipal force. Thirty-nine university police forces have CALEA accreditation (including Virginia Tech), and another 23 are pursuing it. A campus with a small or unaccredited police force is not necessarily unsafe, but it needs to have a close working relationship with other area police.

Virginia Tech faced criticism for failing to notify students after the shooting of the first two students, which happened two hours before 31 more people, including the gunman, were killed across campus.

Police said they believed the first two victims were part of a domestic dispute, but said even if they had tried to shut the campus down, getting the word out to thousands of students and faculty would be difficult.

Better emergency communications with students was already on the agenda at many colleges, but has become more urgent after Virginia Tech. Some schools, like the Universities of Washington and Iowa, are considering warning sirens and outdoor speakers; others are trying to see if new cell phone technologies might help (one problem: it's hard for colleges to keep track of students' cell phone numbers).

Parents should ask about a college's current capabilities -- and plans -- for reaching students in an emergency.

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