All colleges and universities in the U.S. are required by the Clery Act to release an annual security and statistical report disclosing crime on their campuses.
The purpose of these reports is to create awareness for students about the different crimes that have occurred on their campus, as well as outline the policies put into place if such incidents were to happen.
On Oct. 1, the UW-Eau Claire Police Department released its Annual Security Report (ASR) to the public on their website.
The ASR provides a multitude of resources and intervention programs for students who are struggling, ranging from topics about mental health to drug/alcohol abuse to sexual abuse.
Chris Kirchman, UW-Eau Claire Police Department lieutenant, said the importance of the ASR is to help educate students, faculty and staff about campus crime, providing resources for those who need it.
“We hope anyone who reviews the ASR uses the information to understand what resources are available to them, along with what types of crimes may be occurring in this area. Transparency of this information helps for the public to be better prepared and hopefully assists them to avoid becoming the victim of a crime,” Kirchman said.
Also included with the security report is the Annual Fire Safety Report, a small section attached that discusses evacuation procedures, prohibited common house appliances and fire safety education/training programs for students and staff.
Kirchman said that the report is very similar to last year’s, but it is important to keep in mind certain trends of specific reported crimes listed in the Clery Crime Statistics.
“These numbers fluctuate each year, which is why we show three years of data to show the differences. If we go back further in the years of data, the numbers do not necessarily change much. We will occasionally see a rise in one or two categories, but they tend to fall back to the old levels a year later,” Kirchman said..
As an example, Kirchman said rape was reported once in 2020, twice in 2021 and seven times in 2022.
According to Kirchman, these numbers weren’t incidents that were exclusively reported to their department but were the total number of reports taken from housing staff, the Dean of Students, Student Health Service, Counseling Services and other university-related groups.
“Of the seven reported in 2022, only two were officially reported to our police department,” Kirchman said. “I am unsure of why these numbers rose in 2022, other than to say maybe students felt more comfortable seeking help and reaching out to entities on campus, even if they chose not to report to police.”
In the ASR, there is a section that discusses reporting crimes and how students can do so confidentially and without involvement from law enforcement. It lists several resources to contact.
According to page five of the ASR, UW-Eau Claire strongly encourages students to report a crime when it occurs to allow the university to be informed on what’s going on and whether or not it poses a significant threat to the community.
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