Levine and other campus law enforcement experts believe are significant weaknesses for traditional law enforcement.
“College law enforcement has a hard enough time understanding Clery and making sure we comply. Asking an outside agency that does not deal with Clery Act requirements on a daily basis is going to be extremely troublesome,” says Levine.
Levine says Campus Security Authorities (CSAs) who are administrators, coaches, RAs and other campus staff — not campus police — pose the biggest challenge to the proper reporting of incidents. This is because they often don’t understand that they are required to report crimes to college or university law enforcement and don’t receive enough training on how to comply with the Clery Act.
He suspects that a recent case of racial bullying at San Jose State may have prompted Gatto to introduce the bill. In that case, four white students are accused of taunting their black suitemate from August until October with racial epithets, Nazi images, the Confederate flag, barricading him in his dorm and clamping a U-shaped bicycle lock around his neck.
“My understanding is that there were people on campus other than the police department who were aware of the incident. Once the police department became aware of it, they took immediate action,” Levine says.
He believes CSAs who aren’t police or security officers need more training so they will know to report these incidents promptly to campus police.
Even Gatto has noted that the proposed bill is not a cure all, but he thinks it will aid those who might otherwise be reluctant to report incidents. “It may not address all circumstances. Situations like the one at San Jose State demand additional training beyond the scope of this legislation to help administrators and staff to recognize the warning signs earlier,” Gatto wrote in an opinion column for the San Jose Mercury News in early January. “But it will ensure that when students do come forward, their voices will not be silenced by bureaucracy or by concerns about student recruitment and retention.”
Despite Levine’s opposition to the passage of AB 1433, he believes the raising of issues about campus security by Gatto is a good thing.
“I applaud Assemblyman Gatto’s recognition that campuses aren’t in bubbles,” he says. “Bringing these incidents to light and looking for more resources to help college communities deal with these incidents is good, but I think it is being brought about in the wrong way. The staffing levels of college law enforcement agencies need to be looked at.”
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