Study Faults Crime Reports at UC

The University of California, in violation of federal law, failed to report certain crimes, including sexual assaults, on its campuses in the late 1990s and 2000, according to an extensive review of the system’s practices by the U.S. Department of Education.

The report, issued last week, said the UC system has since changed its crime-reporting practices and is now in compliance with federal requirements.

The government’s investigation, along with a separate review of the California State University system, was launched in 2000 after complaints by nonprofit watchdog groups and a series of articles by the Sacramento Bee and other newspapers. The articles were about discrepancies between the number of crimes believed to be occurring on the California campuses and those reported to the federal government.

Under the Clery Act, passed by Congress in 1990 and later strengthened, college campuses are required to submit annual crime data to the department, which makes the material available to the public. The Cal State system also is now complying with the law, according to the Education Department.

Department spokeswoman Jane Glickman said Tuesday that there was no evidence the schools had tried to cover up campus crimes but that they may have had difficulty understanding the complex federal reporting requirements. Since the Clery Act was passed, “we’ve tried to refine it and the Congress has refined it too,” Glickman said. “We’ve provided a lot of technical assistance on this to many schools.”

In the review of the University of California, department officials found that the UC system had used incorrect standards for determining which crimes had to be included in the federal data and which campus officials were required to report them. For example, the report said, university officials had incorrectly decided not to inform the government about crimes that came to the attention of campus counselors or others who were not law enforcement officials, or when specifics of a complaint could not be verified by police.

“However, that rationale is contradictory to the intent of the act itself, which is to provide information that assists the users to help ensure their safety and security,” the report said.

In response, UC spokesman Chuck McFadden said the federal crime-reporting requirement is “extremely complex and has long been subject to varying interpretations.” For example, he said, campus officials have struggled with how to sort out differences in the definitions of specific crimes under state law, under the Clery Act and under FBI reporting requirements.

But since complaints were filed against the university in 2000 by Security on Campus, a campus crime watchdog group, the university examined its reporting practices and has since changed them to comply with the law, he said.

As part of its review, Education Department officials in June 2002 visited three UC campuses -- UC Davis, UCLA and UC San Diego -- to study campus security regulations. All were found to be in compliance, the report said.

The report on the Cal State system was less extensive, saying the university had addressed the issues raised in a complaint filed by Security on Campus and another group, Women Escaping a Violent Environment, in 2000. Department officials said the university had satisfactorily responded to allegations that it had not properly reported crimes.

S. Daniel Carter, vice president of Security on Campus, on Tuesday applauded both universities for what he called “the dramatic steps” they have taken to comply with requirements.