Campus police; report of certain incidents to local law-enforcement agency. (HB2490)

Introduced By

Del. Paula Miller (D-Norfolk)

Progress

Introduced
Passed Committee
Passed House
Passed Senate
Signed by Governor
Became Law

Description

Campus police; report of certain incidents to local law-enforcement agency.  Requires the chief law-enforcement officer of a public or private institution of higher education to report the death or an alleged rape of any person on campus property to the local law-enforcement agency of the locality in which the institution is located. The local law-enforcement agency would assume responsibility for leading the investigation, with cooperation from the institution of higher education. Read the Bill »

Outcome

Bill Has Failed

History

DateAction
01/21/2011Presented and ordered printed 11104027D
01/21/2011Referred to Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety
01/24/2011Assigned MPPS sub: #3
02/04/2011Passed by in Militia, Police and Public Safety with letter

Comments

Waldo Jaquith writes:

There is a chronic, national problem with the campus police understating the seriousness of crimes, or failing to report those in crime statistics, because that's an important metric used by parents to determine where they want their kids to go to college. Obviously, this raises a lot of problems. Requiring university police to report this information to local police seems like a sadly necessary step to combat this.

Editor’s Pick
Gil Harrington writes:

As the parents of a murdered daughter, Morgan Harrington, who was abducted in a college town, we very strongly feel that this bill should pass and be applied nationally. There is an inherent conflict of intrest in having such serious crimes handled internally as well as and experience/resource deficit.

Frances Corwin writes:

I agree with Gil Harrington's post 100% . Mandatory reporting of serious crimes that happen within a University should always be reported to the local Law enforcement Agency . To do anything other than that would & does bring up questions of Conflict of Interest with any school . Not reporting certain dangerous crimes because it may hit the University pocketbook . Very sad to me that a Bill had to be proposed to make it mandatory in the 1st place.

Susan Russell writes:

The wording of HB2490 was modified prior to the subcommittee mtg on 4 February, however, it is not documented above. The bill was changed to read as follows:

B. The chief law enforcement officer of a public or private institution of higher education, or his designee, shall immediately notify the local law enforcement agency or Virginia State Police of the locality in which the institution of higher education is located of (i) the death of any person on the property of the institution when such person is medically unattended and (ii) any report alleging that a rape or sexual assault has occurred on the property of the institution. Upon notification, the local law enforcement agency or State Police may, at the request of the campus police or the victim, assume responsibility for leading the investigation. The campus police department and all other employees of the institution of higher education shall cooperate with the local law enforcement agency or State Police in conducting the investigation and shall provide any assistance requested by such agencies.

Waldo Jaquith writes:

Strangely, the legislature itself has no record of that wording of the bill. They list only the original full text of the bill, without anything about that wording. Thanks for providing it here!