Ferris Department of Public Safety recently released this year’s annual crime report in compliance with the Clery Act.
This act is in place to keep students, parents and the public informed as to what the risks of attending a specific college university are, as well as how safe a specific university may be.
Another requirement of the Clery Act is that these universities must issue “Timely Warnings” and “Emergency Notifications” to anyone who is enrolled in receiving them.
“A timely warning is required when any ‘Clery Crime’ occurs on campus property. Clery crimes are defined as murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, arson, burglary, robbery, motor vehicle theft, sexual assaults, liquor law violations, drug violations, weapon violations and hate crimes,” Ferris Department of Public Safety Director Bruce Borkovich said.
Although this may be startling to have constant notifications of these violations taking place on campus, most Ferris students encourage and accept the Clery Act.
“We have that whole text thing like a few weeks ago we got that text about the sexual assault attempt and that made me well aware that we obviously have people trying to let us know what is going on and we have a constant watch it feels like,” Ferris biotechnology freshman Olivia Began said.
This notification system could prove to be an important tool that ultimately saves lives more efficiently than any law enforcement could, because it gives DPS the ability to inform the entire campus of a crime or potentially harmful situation all at once. Statistics are equally as important for they can inform someone about a university’s safety before even attending or stepping foot on campus.
“I think it keeps them safe to an extent. If I send my kid off to school and see that they have a high crime rate, I’m not going to send them there, but if I see that their statistics are low, I’ll look at that over a school that has high statistics,” Ferris criminal justice senior Alex Downey said.
For more information on how to receive notifications via text or email, visit Ferris’ DPS website and select the Emergency Alert Messaging tab.
After being renamed in 1998, The Clery Act is formally known as The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. It is named after Jeanne Clery, who was sexually assaulted and murdered at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. The act became enforced after her parents went to Congress to pass laws that require college universities who receive federal funding to release crime statistics annually.