As the agency administering title IV programs, the Department of Education is responsible for issuing guidance to implement the law, monitoring colleges’ compliance with its requirements, and issuing two reports: a compilation of exemplary campus security practices and a report to the Congress on campus crime statistics. 2416 and S. 2065—introduced in the 104th Congress would have required more detailed and current campus security records to be made accessible to the public. The Department Has Been Slow to Monitor Compliance and Report to the Congress

Department implementation of the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act’s reporting requirements has included issuing regulations; disseminating policy guidance to colleges; providing technical assistance to colleges and outreach to campus law enforcement organizations; and, to a limited extent, checking whether colleges have prepared crime statistics reports and what procedures they have used for disseminating the reports. However, because of resource constraints, the Department has only recently expanded its monitoring efforts by initiating program reviews that specifically address compliance with the act’s reporting requirements. Monitoring Compliance Has Been Slow, and Some Problems Remain

Although the Department began issuing guidance to colleges on complying with the law in 1991, guidance for monitoring program compliance came much more slowly. Required Report to the Congress Was Late

Although the Department issued a required report on exemplary campus security practices in September 1994, the Department was more than 1 year late in issuing a report on campus crime statistics to the Congress. Citing limited resources to perform such a review, the Department postponed issuing the report until February 1997. As a result, colleges are not reporting data uniformly. In 60 percent of the reports we reviewed, colleges had difficulty complying with the reporting requirement for sex-related offenses. Excluding Information on Crimes Reported to Local Police

Although the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act requires that crime statistics include on-campus occurrences reported to local police, our interviews with college officials and review of their statistical reports suggest that colleges vary in their inclusion of incidents reported to local police. Three of the eight states (Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee) have laws specifically requiring campus safety authorities to maintain daily logs open to public inspection. Many also include some type of provision protecting witnesses, informants, or information that might jeopardize an ongoing investigation. Provisions of State Open Campus Crime Record Laws

Names and addresses of arrested persons and charges against them  Exempts from disclosure incidents involving certain types of handicapped persons, which are to be separately maintained (continued)
Public and private campuses (under the state’s Campus Security Act, private colleges’ police departments are public agencies for the limited purpose of crime enforcement)
Records must be open, if kept; the intent is not to impose a new recordkeeping requirement (continued)
Names and addresses of persons arrested Information specifically not required unless otherwise provided by law: names of persons reporting, victims, witnesses, or uncharged suspects or other information related to investigation (continued)
Identification required is not specified.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the progress made under the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act, focusing on: (1) how the Department of Education has implemented and monitored compliance with the act; (2) the kinds of problems, if any, colleges are having in complying with the act; and (3) the requirements of state laws related to public access to police records on reported crimes on campuses.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) although colleges are having difficulty complying with the act, the Department only recently began a systematic effort to monitor compliance; (2) starting in 1991, the Department of Education issued policy guidance to colleges for implementing the law's crime reporting requirements; (3) since that time, the Department has also provided technical assistance to individual colleges upon request; (4) although the Department began issuing implementing guidance to colleges less than 1 year after the law was passed, the Department has only recently begun to develop procedures for its program reviewers and auditors that systematically address monitoring compliance with these requirements; (5) moreover, citing resource limitations, the Department delayed preparing a report on campus crime statistics for which the law prescribed a September 1995 issuance date; (6) the Department issued the report in February 1997; (7) at the campus level, colleges are finding it difficult to consistently interpret and apply some of the law's reporting requirements; (8) for example, GAO's analysis showed considerable variation in colleges' practices for deciding which incidents to include in their reports and what categories to use in classifying certain crimes; (9) areas of difficulty included deciding how to include incidents reported to campus officials other than law enforcement officers, interpreting federal requirements for reporting sexual offenses, and reporting data on hate crimes; (10) federal legislation proposed in the 104th Congress would have augmented available information on campus crime by requiring that campus police records be open to the campus community; (11) similar laws exist in eight states; (12) three laws contain a specific requirement that colleges maintain daily logs; (13) most laws protect the identity of victims and informants from disclosure and ensure that any information that might jeopardize an ongoing investigation also remains confidential; (14) the state laws vary in many details, such as whether identification of juvenile offenders is required and whether noncompliance by the college can result in penalties; and (15) these laws differ from the 1990 act in requiring year-round access to campus police reports rather than annual summary statistics.