Reporting of crime should be more consistent

Shane Wade
Opinion Editor
This will be the third opinion piece I will have written about campus security at VCU this semester and I hope it will be my last.

Last Saturday, there was a shooting outside the Qdoba frequented by students on Broad Street around 2 a.m. Around the same time, West Grace South and GRC residence halls were evacuated because of fire alarms. No security alert was sent out to students.

In fact, there have been a startling low amount of security alerts/messages this semester compared to other semesters. Normally, that would make me feel safer, but, as an informed member of the populace, I can’t help but wonder how artificial that security might be and how much under-reporting the VCU Police department is engaging in.

Possibly as a response to students’ concerns over the amount of e-mail alerts they received in the past, it seems VCU police have become more selective as to which particular off-campus crimes should students be alerted to. While student input is important, it shouldn’t be the deciding factor when determining how informed students should be.

The  Jeanne Clery Act, which governs the reporting of campus crime, only requires that students be alerted to crimes that occur on-campus. Oftentimes in the past, VCU Police went further than the law required and sent out security alerts for crimes that occurred on off-campus locations within close proximity to campus. The police have a responsibility and accountability to students and, while we do applaud them for going above and beyond the call of duty in sending out off-campus e-mail alerts, it would be more prudent of them to be consistent and logical.

When a little over 459 students are standing outside at 2 a.m., a single street and less than 100 yards away from a shooting, it’s reasonable to assume students would like to know of said incident. I would go as far as to say that not relaying that information on to students is an act of serious ethical neglect. At the least, it’s inconsistent with VCU Police’s past willingness to share information about crime with students. Although the police operated within the bounds of the law and were not required to inform students of the incident because it wasn’t an ongoing danger and it’s distressing that we weren’t informed. The fact that the suspected subjects were arrested within a timely manner does not relieve the police of their responsibilities to the student body. The absence of suspected individuals does not refute the action’s occurrence.

Sending less alerts doesn’t make students feel like campus is safer if there are still crimes occurring in close proximity to campus; it actually makes students feel less safe and less secure in their police forces competency when they hear about a shooting across the street from them from a friend’s tweet rather than an official e-mail by the police department.

More than anything, VCU Police, we ask from you consistency. Develop a guideline (that isn’t on a “case-by-case basis”) by which you qualify whether or not to send an alert for an off-campus crime and stick to it. Doing otherwise confuses students, especially when the solution to the problem is so blatantly obvious. Prioritize incidents and act accordingly.

Allow us to be adults and make our own, individual decisions as to whether we’re going to ignore a security alert or not.