2008 Woodie Awards
Police department making changes after underreporting
Wyatt Norman, Texan News Service
Issue date: 9/6/07 Section: News
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Tarleton State University police records will undergo multiple reviews this year to ensure reporting errors made during the last three years will not be repeated, a top university administrator says.
Tarleton recently revised a required federal report about crime on campus, substantially increasing the number of offenses reported to police. The revised document listed three reports of sexual offenses and 64 burglaries on campus between 2003 and 2005.
The old report did not disclose any of the sex offense reports, or the 29 burglaries.
Jerry Graham, Tarleton vice president
for Finance and Administration, said in an e-mail this summer that the 2006 report on campus crime, which will be released this fall, "will be reviewed at multi-levels within the University Police Department, with a final review by the chief."
"In addition, a team of upperlevel Tarleton administrators will review the final university police data as well as conduct an annual review of all 2006 university activity to verify that the crimes are categorized correctly according to the definitions in the Clery Act," Graham said.
The Clery Act requires colleges and universities to disclose seven categories of serious crimes, including burglaries and sex offenses, to the federal government and campus communities.
Tarleton revised its report for 2003-2005 last spring, some five weeks after student journalists published articles in The J-TAC, raising questions about the accuracy of crime information the university disclosed to the U.S. Department of Education. Tarleton Police Chief Robert Hooper has declined to comment about the revised report or the new review process.
After the revised report was released,
Graham said the revision was needed because of police "misinterpretations."
"There was no defined reason for not reporting any of the incidents," Graham said. "Misinterpretations occurred by university police between the use of subjective judgment of hard evidence and the definitions of the Clery Act."
Tarleton recently revised a required federal report about crime on campus, substantially increasing the number of offenses reported to police. The revised document listed three reports of sexual offenses and 64 burglaries on campus between 2003 and 2005.
The old report did not disclose any of the sex offense reports, or the 29 burglaries.
Jerry Graham, Tarleton vice president
for Finance and Administration, said in an e-mail this summer that the 2006 report on campus crime, which will be released this fall, "will be reviewed at multi-levels within the University Police Department, with a final review by the chief."
"In addition, a team of upperlevel Tarleton administrators will review the final university police data as well as conduct an annual review of all 2006 university activity to verify that the crimes are categorized correctly according to the definitions in the Clery Act," Graham said.
The Clery Act requires colleges and universities to disclose seven categories of serious crimes, including burglaries and sex offenses, to the federal government and campus communities.
Tarleton revised its report for 2003-2005 last spring, some five weeks after student journalists published articles in The J-TAC, raising questions about the accuracy of crime information the university disclosed to the U.S. Department of Education. Tarleton Police Chief Robert Hooper has declined to comment about the revised report or the new review process.
After the revised report was released,
Graham said the revision was needed because of police "misinterpretations."
"There was no defined reason for not reporting any of the incidents," Graham said. "Misinterpretations occurred by university police between the use of subjective judgment of hard evidence and the definitions of the Clery Act."
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