With the release of the 2019 Annual Safety Report (ASR) on September 30, 2019, to students, faculty and staff, Texas State University has corrected deficiencies identified in prior years’ reports, and implemented University-wide processes to help ensure accurate crime statistics reporting moving forward.
The University is committed to Clery Act compliance and has been working toward that goal since November 2018 when recommendations were made through a University-requested peer review of the University Police Department by the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA). Some of the recommendations made in the IACLEA peer review report were related to improving Clery compliance processes at the University, but did not address the possibility of inaccurate crime statistics reported in the ASR.
All recommendations in the IACLEA peer review report regarding Clery have been addressed under the leadership of UPD Chief Laurie Clouse who was hired in February, 2019. Chief Clouse has extensive experience in university law enforcement and expertise in Clery Act compliance.
After communicating with the Department of Education this summer, Texas State was advised to revise the 2016 and 2017 crime statistics numbers. As a result, some of the revised crime statistics numbers for 2016 and 2017 are higher than previously reported. Texas State had been working with the Department of Education since mid-May 2019 to ensure the 2019 Annual Security Report was Clery Act compliant.
The University has taken actions to resolve Clery reporting deficiencies, including establishing an internal Clery Compliance Committee that meets monthly, joining the national Clery Center which helps identify best practices and provides an external review of the University’s ASR, and working with Margolis Healy, a nationally known Clery consultant .
An email with a link to the 2019 ASR which contains 2018 crime statistics and the revised 2016 and 2017 crime statistics was provided to all Texas State students, faculty and staff on September 30.