Each year, Gannon University’s Police and Safety office releases an annual security report and an annual fire safety report.
Les Fetterman, director of Police and Safety, said that the annual security report is required to be in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Act.
Police and Safety is required to notify the Gannon community that the report has been published.
The report must be available by Oct. 1 each year.
All universities that receive any federal funding or grants must comply with the act, and all of these statistics are available on the Clery site.
Data is for the previous calendar year with the inclusion of two years prior to that so comparisons can be made.
“I like to compare several years of data to make sure the trend is something that can be attributed to something we are doing and not just a one-year change,” Fetterman said.
For many of the offenses listed, there were zero incidents reported from 2015 to 2017.
A zero doesn’t mean that no incidents have happened, it means that none have been reported.
Fetterman said that the numbers shown are for reports that have been made. He also said there are varying reasons why the numbers increase or decrease each year.
“Higher numbers do not always mean more crime,” Fetterman said. “It may mean officials are more approachable and people are comfortable reporting incidents.”
Fetterman said it is important to remember that these are reported crimes, not substantiated.
“With all of the awareness training going on,” Fetterman said, “we may increase reports as we encourage people to come forward and break down barriers that prevent them from doing so.”
Occurrences are categorized into the following sections: on-campus in Erie, on-campus student housing facilities, non-campus and public property.
The incidents are also classified into broader categories: criminal offenses, hate crimes, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), arrests, disciplinary actions and unfounded crimes.
Criminal offenses include murder/non-negligent manslaughter, negligent manslaughter, forcible and non-forcible sex offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft and arson.
One hundred and fourteen disciplinary actions taken against liquor law violations were reported on campus last year. Four arrests were made on campus for liquor law violations.
In 2015 and 2016, only 105 disciplinary actions were counted.
Fetterman attributes the improvements in some of the reported incidents to the steps Police and Safety has been taking to better all safety precautions.
“We are constantly evaluating everything related to safety,” Fetterman said. This includes card access systems, over 500 cameras, safety apps, an E-Alert system, ongoing training with the police staff and all of faculty, staff and students, safety presentations and more.
“We ask ourselves what can be improved, what works well, are there better products, and really what do the students want and what will they use?” Fetterman said.
In fall of 2017, Fetterman said part of that reorganization allowed a reallocation of funds to purchase the LiveSafe app that has many features. The callboxes were also updated with bright blue LED lights and signs.
Over the past three years, no reported incidents of criminal offenses have occurred off campus.
There have also been no reports of occurrences of hate crimes on or off campus in the past three years.
In 2017, for criminal offenses, one forcible sex offense was reported, there were two rape offenses on campus and two incidents of robbery.
VERONICA KOWALSKI
[email protected]
