Campus Safety Group Asks For Review Of Campus Crime Reporting At Bowling Green State University

Bowling Green, OH-A national non-profit campus safety organization announced Friday that they have asked the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to investigate allegations of improper campus crime reporting by Bowling Green State University. The school is accused of failing to include crimes reported to campus officials other than police in their annual campus crime statistics as required by a federal law known as the "Jeanne Clery Act."

The school is also accused of failing to indicate the types of hate crimes occurring on campus, and the nature of the bias involved as the law requires.

"We were contacted by a concerned student and based on a review of their security disclosures believe that the student body may not be hearing about all crimes on campus," said S. Daniel Carter, the vice-president of Security On Campus, Inc. the group asking the DOE to review reporting. "The DOE needs to investigate and resolve these concerns one way or another."

Carter filed a formal complaint against BGSU Friday morning with the DOE's Chicago regional office. Schools that violate the law may be fined up to $25,000 per violation.

Security On Campus, Inc., based in King of Prussia, PA, was founded in 1987 by Howard and Connie Clery after their daughter Jeanne was murdered on the campus of Lehigh University in 1986. The Clerys championed the federal campus crime reporting law now named the "Jeanne Clery Act" in memory of their daughter.

SOC is the only national non-profit organization devoted exclusively to improving safety on our nation's college and university campuses, as well as to providing services to the victims of campus violence.