UD students are advised to never walk alone at night, according to Maj. Robert Coyle, Program Manager in the Department of Public Safety. Although this seems like common sense, its importance is stressed in preventing crime at UD.

Recently the Department of Public Safety released the October 2005 report of the Clery Act, which includes crime statistics from the years 2002, 2003 and 2004. The purpose of this document is to make students, faculty and the public aware of the crime that occurs on campus. It also illustrates multiple crime prevention programs practiced at UD.

The Clery Act was formed in 1990, and the first report was released in 1991. It was named in memory of Jeanne Ann Clery who was raped and murdered while asleep in her residence hall at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.

'After this incident, a number of such occurrences were discovered, which lead Jeanne's parents to believe that the university was not taking the steps in security it should have been taking,' Coyle stated. 'Being very active and vocal, they brought about the formation of the Clery Act where the Department of Education requires universities to disclose information so people can make a better decision.'

By law, schools must publish an annual report disclosing campus security polices and three years worth of selected crime statistics. Also, each institution with a police or security department must make a crime log available to the public.

'The Clery Act was developed by a number of legislators in different areas of the government guided by the Department of Education,' Coyle said. 'The Department of Education is responsible to present the data nationally. The institution is responsible to collect the data and provide it to the Department of Education and our community.'

According to Coyle, it is important people are aware of the occurrences on campus and know multiple methods on how to prevent them from happening again.

'The main purpose of the Clery Act is awareness,' Coyle stated. 'It gives everyone an idea of the policies we have for reporting information and the actual statistics for the crimes on campus.'

When looking at the specific statistics for crime throughout the years, it is difficult to compare the rate with other schools. Multiple factors play a role in the crime that takes place on campus including the community surrounding a university.

'People want to put a quantification on things that sometimes can be extremely misleading,' Coyle stated. 'For example, if we had 10 stolen cars in the student neighborhood this year, is that better or worse than last year? Let's say last year there were 300 people with the intent of stealing cars, and we kept 290 from doing it. This year there were two people with the intent of stealing and all of them got away with it. Which year is better? The numbers are what you make of them.'

According to Coyle, the Clery Act does not take into consideration crimes that occurred on property not owned by UD. For example, a rape in a landlord house is not included in the statistics because that house is not owned by UD.

'Our numbers go up and down a reasonable amount every year,' Coyle stated. 'It is not a direct science. There are not a specific number of people out there that are scheduled to perform a certain number of crimes in a year. It's all by chance.'

Also included in the Clery Act are the methods used for crime prevention and ways to make students, faculty and the public more aware of situations that happen on campus.

Multiple prevention articles, videos, brochures and educational presentations are available through Public Safety.

'Education is the most important part of crime prevention,' Coyle stated. 'When people learn how to be safe it does reduce the chances of something happening.'

Prevention devices such as the bicycle patrol, blue light phones, the student escort service and the recent addition of video surveillance are used. According to Coyle, the 360 cameras on campus are extremely helpful in the investigation of crimes.

'We are not keeping the cameras secret,' Coyle said. 'We are hoping that people are not going to get in front of a camera and commit a crime. If the camera placement is not obvious but people are aware of their presence, there is a better chance that crime will be reduced because people will never know where the cameras are placed.'

The awareness the Clery Act spreads is predicted to help UD prevent crimes in the future. Just remember, the next time you walk home late at night, have a friend by your side.