The Journal

Issue date: 2/17/05 Section: News

Media Credit: RYAN RUMBERGER / The Journal Public Safety Supervisor Derrick Wright (left) and a WGPD officer inspect a theater patron´s car Feb. 3. The car slipped out of gear and rolled down a hill behind the Sam H. Priest Center. This incident, as well as all vehicle accidents, are reported in the crime log. [Click to enlarge]

The Department of Public Safety did not report 57 incidents to The Journal during the Fall 2004 semester. The incidents included five cases of harassment, four cases of theft more than $500, seven incidents of theft less than $500, three incidents of property damage, an assault and a suspected overdose.

Every week, The Journal attempts to gather weekly incidents from Public Safety, as reported in the crime log. In Fall 2004 and this semester, Public Safety officials refused to let reporters see the crime log and left incidents out of their oral reports.

Public Safety has been reading the crime log to Journal reporters for at least three years. The university is required to keep a crime log physically available for inspection, under a federal disclosure act, known as the Jeanne Clery Act.

Dan Pesold, director of Public Safety, stressed the crime log is open at all times.

"I think it comes down to a lot of miscommunication as to what is required [with the Clery Act]," Pesold said.

The purpose of the Clery Act is to make campus communities aware of crimes and lessen the chance of becoming victims. The act is named after a student who was tortured, raped, sodomized and murdered in her dormitory room at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. The act requires schools to provide three different kinds of documentation to the public: an annual statistical report of campus crime, a daily campus crime log and timely safety reports regarding crimes that present an ongoing threat to students.

Although reporters asked to see the crime log last semester, The Journal did not confront Public Safety with the law.

Continued...

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