How can releasing campus crime statistics promote campus safety?

Challenge

Releasing campus crime statistics plays a key role in increasing awareness of campus crime, and informing students and employees about how their college’s security policies help to promote campus safety.

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) plays a role in helping colleges provide students with a safe environment in which to learn.

Solution

To support ED’s efforts to promote safety and security on college campuses, Westat

• Runs a year-round helpdesk to answer colleges’ questions and assist them in collecting, reporting, and submitting campus crime statistics and keeping their campuses safe
• Conducts ED’s annual web-based data collection of crime statistics and produces public-use data files for an ED website
• Wrote and continues to update ED’s comprehensive compliance document, The Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting
• Prompts institutions to meet the October 1 deadline for disseminating their required annual security report
• Participates in ED’s negotiated rulemaking processes related to campus security

Results

Our work helps colleges meet safety and security requirements.

• 7,000+ institutions have access to detailed guidance documents and one-on-one assistance.
• The helpdesk fields about 10,000 incoming phone calls and emails from colleges each year.
• Each year, 100% of colleges submit the required crime statistics through the Campus Safety and Security Survey, and these statistics are made available to the public online.