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Oklahoma City University failed to make its updated crime log publicly available in recent months despite being required by federal law to do so, campus journalists reported recently.
OCU officials also refused to provide archived crime logs promptly and failed to publish up-to-date annual crime statistics by the required deadline, reported MediaOCU.com.
The U.S. Department of Education office that investigates Clery Act violations has been sent the students' articles. Schools can be fined up to $35,000 for each infraction of the Clery Act.
The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act explicitly requires private universities that receive federal funding and maintain a police department to make a daily crime log available for public inspection during normal business hours. (20 USC §1092(f)(4)(A)(B)))
All crimes must be added to the log within two business days (Monday through Friday, except for school holidays) of their initial report to campus police.
But OCU officials were unable to provide current crime logs on April 2 and April 11 when requested by student reporters. OCU officials said the crime logs were available on the police department's website.
But the students discovered that the most-recent crime log entry was Jan. 31. Madi Alexander's story included a screen shot of the online crime log from April 11.
Not until April 16 did OCU officials correct the online crime log, Alexander reported.
OCU spokeswoman Sandy Pantlik blamed the 10 weeks of missing crime logs on a technical glitch.
In a written statement, Pantlik implied that OCU hadn't violated the Clery Act because the school had sent "crime stats via email on a regular basis to a broad list of campus recipients, including MediaOCU."
"MediaOCU did post OCU crime logs and police reports to the university website throughout February, March and the first of April, making the statistics available through an online source associated with the university," Pantlik wrote.
However, OCU did not send all crime log entries to the student media. Moreover, I'm sure that student media's posting of some crime reports didn't absolve OCU of its statutory obligation to have all crime logs publicly available.
The U.S. Department of Education seems to agree.
"Your log may be either hard copy or electronic," says the department's handbook on complying with the Clery Act. "If your institution has an electronic log and there are technical problems that make it unusable, use a hard copy log as a temporary replacement until the problems are resolved." (p. 95)
OCU officials also refused to provide archived crime logs to Alexander within two business days of her request.
Pantlik said OCU is "not required the Clery Act, by the Clery Act regulations, or by the Handbook to make these archived logs available upon request." Instead, she said on April 19, the records would be provided within 30 days.
But the federal regulations for complying with the Clery Act say portions of crime logs older than 60 days must be made "available with two business days of a request for public inspection." (34 CFR 668.46(f)(5))
Alexander said Wednesday (May 22) that she hasn't received the archived logs.
Alexander also reported that OCU had failed to include its 2011 crime statistics in its 2012 report. The university had included only 2008-2010.
The Clery Act requires schools to publish annual security reports that include crime statistics for the most recent calendar year and two preceding calendar years. (20 USC §1092(f)(1)(F)))
The report must be published and distributed by Oct. 1.
"This is a firm deadline. There is no grace period and there are no exemptions," the handbook emphasizes.
Alexander noted that OCU's security report wasn't corrected until April 21 and only after she and another reporter brought other apparent Clery Act violations to the attention of school officials.
The students had also pointed out that victim addresses were included in 10 crime log reports.
Pantlik said OCU "is not required by the Clery Act or by federal regulations adopted with respect to the Clery Act to remove room numbers from university crime logs."
But the statute says, "All entries that are required pursuant to this paragraph shall, except where disclosure of such information is prohibited by law or such disclosure would jeopardize the confidentiality of the victim, be open to public inspection within two business days of the initial report being made to the department or a campus security authority." (20 USC §1092(f)(4)(B)(i)))
The handbook explains:
[I]f the state crime log requires the victims’ names to be listed, for Clery purposes those names must be redacted for public inspection. The federal Clery Act regulations state that a disclosure may not jeopardize the confidentiality of the victim. This takes precedence over state crime log laws. (p. 90)
Pantlik said OCU "does attempt to follow the guidelines set forth in the Handbook." The addresses were later redacted.
OCU officials remain adamant that they have not violated the Clery Act.
Joey Senat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU School of Media & Strategic Communications
The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the commentators and do not necessarily represent the position of FOI Oklahoma Inc., its staff, or its board of directors. Differing interpretations of open government law and policy are welcome.
Oklahoma State University police are investigating a female student's complaint that her ex-boyfriend had secretly videotaped them having sex in October in an on-campus apartment that the student newspaper says is a football player's residence.
OSU officials redacted the ex-boyfriend's name and other identifying information from the report released to the news media.
The female student's name, address, date of birth and phone number were included in the report released to the news media.
OSU spokesman Gary Shutt defended the decision to redact the suspect's information but leave in the woman's, saying the university was required to by the state Open Records Act.
"The reporting party is public information; suspects and witnesses are not until charges have been filed," Shutt wrote to News On 6 in a Thursday email.
Shutt didn't cite a specific statutory provision requiring suspect names to be redacted from police reports or one requiring complainant names to be included.
Under the Open Records Act, the public is entitled to a "chronological list of incidents, including initial offense report information showing the offense, date, time, general location, officer and a brief summary of what occurred.” (OKLA. STAT. tit. 51, § 24A.8(A)(3))
Typically, I would agree that the names and identifying information for both complainants and suspects should be included in police reports.
However, OSU also is subject to the federal Clery Act, which requires all colleges and universities that receive federal funding and maintain a police or security department to keep a daily crime log that is open to public inspection.
The federal statute prohibits schools from identifying victims in the crime log.
As a U.S. Department of Education 2011 handbook explains:
Many institutions are also required by state law to maintain a log. If your institution maintains such a log, you may use it for your daily crime log as well, providing it meets all Clery Act requirements. However, if the state crime log requires the victims’ names to be listed, for Clery purposes those names must be redacted for public inspection. The federal Clery Act regulations state that a disclosure may not jeopardize the confidentiality of the victim. This takes precedence over state crime log laws.” (p. 90)
Oklahoma's Open Records Act doesn't distinguish between "crime logs" and "incident reports."
As state attorney general, Drew Edmondson had emphasized that access to law enforcement information does not depend on the record title used by the agency.
"The department doesn't have to call it a jail register. If it is a jail register, then it's a public record," Edmondson said in a police training video. "They don’t have to call it a radio log. If they keep a log of radio traffic, then it's a public record."
Bottom line: It seems contradictory for the Clery Act to supersede state laws on "crime logs" in order to prohibit the release of the victim's name by the university but not to override state laws on "incident reports" and thus allow the release of the name by the university.
Joey Senat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU School of Media & Strategic Communications
The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the commentators and do not necessarily represent the position of FOI Oklahoma Inc., its staff, or its board of directors. Differing interpretations of open government law and policy are welcome.
Oklahoma's Open Records Act doesn't require state universities and colleges to keep a public log of reported crimes.
But a federal law does.
The Clery Act requires public and private post-secondary schools that receive federal funding and maintain a police or security department to keep a daily crime log that is open to public inspection and is readily understandable. (34 CFR 668.46(f)) (20 USC §1092(f)(4)(A)(B))
The statute also imposes a number of important conditions on those crime logs that differ from the Open Records Act's requirements for such records, including:
- Crimes must be added to the log within two business days of their initial report to the campus police or the campus security department.
- This time requirement also covers any addition to an entry or change in the disposition of a complaint. For example, federal education officials note, if the disposition of a crime is "pending" and an arrest is made later, the school has two business days to update the disposition on the original entry.
- Schools aren’t required to update dispositions for crimes more than 60 days old.
- A business day is defined Monday through Friday, except for days when the school is closed.
- The only exceptions to this rule are if the disclosure is prohibited by law or would jeopardize the confidentiality of the victim.
- The log is required to include the nature, date (occurred and reported), time and general location of each crime, and its disposition if known.
- The description of the location must mean something to the campus community.
- But the location must not lead to identification of the victim.
- Victims' names must be redacted. This requirement supersedes the state Open Records Act, which has no such provision.
- Schools may temporarily withhold information only if there is clear and convincing evidence that the release of information would:
- Jeopardize an ongoing investigation;
- Jeopardize the safety of an individual;
- Cause a suspect to flee or evade detection; or
- Result in the destruction of evidence.
- The school may withhold only the information that could cause the adverse effect.
- That information must be disclosed once the adverse effect is no longer likely.
- The person deciding to withhold the information should document the reason.
- The crime log for the most-recent 60 days must be open to public inspection, upon request, during normal business hours.
- Schools may not require a written request.
- Anyone may have access to the log, including media not associated with the school.
- Logs older than 60 days must be made available for inspection within two business days of the request.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES:
Joey Senat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU School of Media & Strategic Communications
