On Oct. 23, 2007, a police cruiser driving down Commonwealth Avenue made an illegal U-turn near St. Mary’s Street and hit a Boston University student, breaking the cruiser’s left turn signal and sending the pedestrian to the hospital. Despite state laws requiring that public university and municipal police departments make crime reports publicly available, the BU Police Department was legally able to withhold information on the accident, arguing that the incident was still “under investigation” and reports did not need to be public. A much-needed bill now before the state legislature would change that, giving parents and students at private universities the information they deserve about campus crime.
This requirement would not force campus police into uncharted territory — state law already requires campus police departments at public universities to disclose much more information. October’s cruiser accident illustrates how colleges have abused this loophole to prevent vital if damaging information from reaching the public.
Publicly available information beyond basic arrests and emergency response logs serves as more than a symbol for students to rally around — it improves campus safety. Students attending private universities deserve to know as much about nearby crimes as their peers at public institutions. Parents also have a reason to want the full truth about safety on their child’s campus. Though campus police departments’ first and only goal is to protect students, these police forces could withhold information that would improve students’ safety to avoid admitting mistakes or because of university pressure. Shedding light on police records information forces these departments to be more accountable to students and parents.
Under the new bill being considered, students would not have to fear giving up their own privacy by providing police with non-crime related tips. Police would not publicly report a student’s tip on a friend contemplating suicide; this would be referred to university counselors and both parties’ anonymity would be preserved. The campus disclosure bill failed a previous vote in the House because of these legitimate fears. Now revised to give students more privacy, this bill should have better odd of passing through both chambers of the State House.
With a looming budget deficit, rising health care costs and lingering divisions over Gov. Deval Patrick’s failed proposal for casinos, lawmakers might be tempted to ignore this essential piece of legislation as too unimportant to trump more pressing legislative issues. The truth is that now is as good a time as any for them to push this bill through the State House and give constituents at private universities the tools they deserve to challenge college administrators over issues of public safety.
