UCSC reported inaccurate crime statistics, state auditor’s report finds

UC Santa Cruz underreported 2022 crime statistics to the U.S. Department of Education, including serious crimes such as domestic battery and rape, according to a California State Auditor’s report that reviewed six higher education institutions. 

The federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act) requires that higher-ed institutions that receive federal funding prepare annual security reports to inform students, applicants and their families about campus safety and how the university is working to keep students and staff safe. 

For the 2022 calendar year, the audit found, UCSC didn’t include 33 crimes in its Clery statistics reported to the education department. 

“By not including these serious crimes in its Clery statistics as required, Santa Cruz presented its campus as safer than it was,” the July report reads. “Similarly, other campuses underreported serious crimes in their Clery statistics because, as we noted, they lacked written procedures that would ensure accurate reporting, such as guidance for staff to follow when making determinations about whether a crime is Clery‑reportable.” 

Clery-reportable crimes include murder, hate crimes, robbery, burglary, arson, liquor violations, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking. 

UCSC said turnover in the university’s Clery coordinator position and the lack of “written guidance” for an interim coordinator caused the errors, according to the report. 

Every three years, as California law requires, the auditor reports to the legislature its findings of a review of at least six institutions’ compliance with the Clery Act. For this report, the auditor’s office reviewed California State University Chico; Imperial Valley College; Mount Saint Mary’s University, Los Angeles; Orange Coast College; the University of San Diego; and UCSC.

In addition to UCSC, auditors found that Chico State, Imperial Valley, Mount Saint Mary’s and Orange Coast also reported statistics that were inaccurate or incomplete. Four of the universities, including UCSC, also had omissions in their daily crime logs. Of 60 crimes reviewed, 22 were missing from UCSC’s daily crime logs. 

Because of the results of the report, the State Auditor recommended that the legislature consider requiring periodic reviews of all institutions that are subject to the Clery Act and that they publish their results online. The recommendation also comes in part due to the auditor’s reports finding that in the past 21 years of reviews, the office has found noncompliance with Clery Act requirements at 41 institutions. 

“All six institutions agreed with our conclusions and indicated that they will implement our recommendations to improve their practices and processes for complying with Clery Act requirements,” the report reads. 

UCSC campus spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason said university officials “appreciate the thoughtful and constructive recommendations.”

“We are always working to promote a safe environment for everyone in our campus community,” he wrote to Lookout. “We are eager to implement these recommendations, and staff members are already working to improve the transparency of our public safety information and compliance with the Clery Act.”

The state auditor reviewed how the universities compiled the data, how having a centralized reporting system impacts accuracy of their statistics, how each university disclosed, or in all six cases failed to disclose, “statements of policies involving campus emergency response and evacuation procedures.” 

The auditor’s office also looked at how each university reported its Clery crimes. For 2022 crime statistics, the office found that UCSC had 705 Clery-reportable incidents in its internal records but reported only 672 incidents to the U.S. Department of Education. 

UCSC officials said the university’s prior Clery coordinator left the position before compiling and finishing the 2022 Clery statistics, and instead the staff in the Risk and Safety Services office completed the work. 

“In the absence of written guidance, the staff in the Risk and Safety Services office did not use the files that the previous Clery coordinator used, and they did not have access to the databases that the university police department, the Title IX office, or the Student Conduct office use,” the report reads. “As a result, the staff at the Risk and Safety Services office compiled the statistics that each of the departments gave them but did not check the accuracy of those numbers. The university explained that the Risk and Safety Services office mistakenly thought the data had been cross‑checked by the former Clery coordinator.” 

The State Auditor also reviewed the institutions’ crime data to understand if they correctly categorized crimes as either Clery-reportable or not. The office looked at 60 incidents from 2022 the UCSC classified as Clery and not Clery. 

“Santa Cruz did not report in its 2022 Clery statistics multiple instances of serious crimes, including dating violence, domestic battery, and rape,” the report found. “Our review of 60 crimes at Santa Cruz for that year found that the institution did not include seven reportable crimes in its Clery statistics.” 

The reports included incidents like stalking, rape and dating violence, as well as one alcohol-related disciplinary referral and one case of burglary. 

“Santa Cruz did not report these seven crimes because it lacked written procedures for compiling Clery statistics,” the report reads, citing the departure of the Clery coordinator and how staff attempted to compile the data. 

The Clery coordinator left their role in June 2023, and the interim project coordinator wasn’t aware that they needed to request statistics from different offices, including the Title IX office or local law enforcement. The interim coordinator “thought they were already included in statistics provided by the university police department,” according to the report.

As a result, the university is revising its 2022 Clery statistics to submit them to the U.S. Department of Education again. 

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