The Clery Act: What Law Enforcement Officers Need to Know
Category: Law Enforcement
Gordon Graham here with Today’s Tip from Lexipol. Today’s Tip is for law enforcement officers. It deals with a federal law known as the Clery Act, which applies to many colleges and universities.
If your jurisdiction includes a college or university, please be aware of the Clery Act.
The Clery Act requires schools to do several things. It requires they issue emergency alerts when there is a hazard that could affect the campus community. It requires they provide education about dating and domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. It requires the establishment of certain disciplinary procedures. And it requires that schools publish an annual security report.
Why should you care if you are not in campus law enforcement? Well, schools must collect information about crimes that occur near campus, not just on campus. Schools may contact your agency to get this information. And sometimes they will file open records requests.
If your jurisdiction includes a college or university, or if there is one nearby, please work with them to identify the information they need and then help them keep track of it. And remember, when they call asking for crime statistics, they’re probably not writing a research paper-they are just trying to comply with federal law.
That’s Today’s Tip from Lexipol. Gordon Graham, signing off.