OCT 24, 2024 | NEWS | By Beau Toepfer
On Sept. 30, Colorado College released the Annual Safety, Security and Fire Report, a document that any college or university receiving federal funding must publicly report and provide prospective and current students with crime data on the school and its surrounding area from the previous year.
This year’s crime report focuses on the three most recent years, 2021, 2022 and 2023 to give readers an idea of how the local crime rate has changed. The data is also demarcated to show which reported crimes are related to bias, comprising hate and hate-motivated crimes. Over the past three years, there has been one racially motivated assault. Some of the significant increases in crime over the past three years have been car theft, arson, and liquor and drug violations.
Colorado College Campus Safety continually collects reports about on-campus incidents. Campus safety compiles them with reports from the local sheriff’s department on the area immediately around campus, known as the “Clery geography,” as defined by the 1990 Clery Act, which mandated the reports. The report also covers the CC cabin, Baca Campus, and any property CC is leasing. However, not all reported incidents are included, including one of the most common — bike theft. The report focuses on three main types of crime: criminal offenses, arrests and judicial referrals, and reports under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
The report also outlines who to contact, how to report incidents and how to get support on campus.
The Clery geography includes all CC-owned or leased property and connecting streets. Information on crimes in those areas comes from the county sheriff’s department. Every January, CC Campus Safety requests all police reports from the Clery geography of CC-owned properties every January.
The majority of the crimes committed are “crimes of convenience,” Buckley says. Bike and auto thefts are typical offenses. This was especially true in 2023, as people discovered how to easily steal older models of Kias and Hyundais, accounting for the increase in vehicle theft.
“A lot of the crimes that happen here are crimes of convenience; somebody’s walking by, and they see a car with a lot of stuff in it,” Buckley said. “Somebody’s walking by, and they see a car running. This happens not only to students but also to staff and faculty. We’ve had campus vehicles stolen because somebody left the keys in them.”
CC also has to report steps taken to lessen crime on campus in the Clery report.
“It includes things like our Ticket and Talk with a police officer … so that they can have a talk with the student, as opposed to having them get a ticket right then when something happens,” Buckley said.
The crime report also provides data on rape and sexual assault reports. Some reports come from RAs and RLCs or from campus confidential reporters. The names are not reported, only the nature of the assault.
The report follows set definitions of crimes, also stated in the crime section. However, these definitions can be broad and flatten the nuance of an incident, like the reporting of arson. While Buckley couldn’t clarify what the two most recent reports of arson were, she could add that arson reports aren’t always as severe as burning someone’s house down.
“All sorts of things could be classified as arson,” Buckley said. “It’s a broad term. Somebody letting somebody else’s clothes on fire can be an arson, or somebody lighting a dumpster on fire can be an arson.”
The report includes fire safety systems and fire escape plans in on-campus student residency buildings. Not all buildings on campus have sprinklers – Colorado Springs’ fire code does not require them.
“A lot of that depends on what it would cost to retrofit those houses versus what would you actually gain from it,” Cathy Buckley, the CC director of campus safety and emergency management, said.
The decision comes down to whether or not sprinklers would make a difference in saving lives. For example, sprinklers in the Big Three dorms need to give students time to evacuate. A fire alarm would be sufficient in one of the smaller houses with only a couple of students, so the cost of retrofitting the house to include sprinklers may not be considered worth it. As of 2023, the most recent information in the report stated that 17 of the 41 CC-owned student housing buildings don’t have a sprinkler suppression system.
The fire report doesn’t apply to campus-adjacent housing that students rent. The same is not necessarily true of the crime report.
Buckley also noted that one of the best ways to prevent many more severe crimes, such as assault, is to watch out for your friends.
“There’s power in groups: if you’re going to go to an off-campus event, if you’re going to go downtown, or if you’re going to go other places, go with friends,” Buckley said. “Keep an eye on your drinks, and make sure everybody comes back to campus together. That power in groups is so important.”