Clery Act provisions focus on reporting and safety plans

By Matt Gomez
The Guardsman

New amendments to the Clery Act will change the way colleges across the country report hate crimes and develop and execute emergency plans.

The amendments require schools to have an emergency plan, practice a drill annually to determine the plan’s success and give more details when reporting hate crimes.

Due to the lack of on-campus housing, City College is not required to follow the provision concerning missing students.

According to the Department of Education’s Federal Register, hate crimes must be reported if they “manifest evidence that the victim was intentionally selected because of the victim’s actual or perceived race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or disability” .

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act is a federal law that was passed in 1990 after 19-year-old Jeanne Clery was raped and murdered at Lehigh University in 1986.

The act mandates that any college or university with federal financial aid program keep a public and up-to-date crime log concerning crime on or near campus. The log is supposed to be updated within two business days of when a crime happens.

“There are a lot of things that would make it a lot easier and a lot more efficient,” said Public Information Officer Rachel Hakes. “But we’re doing the best we can.”

Additionally, crime logs must be current and contain incidents for the last 60 days. For crimes older than 60 days, logs must be made available with two business days if requested.

“We’ve been doing crime logs for years,”Hakes said. “It’s always kept up to date on our website.”