Campus safety has become an important concern in the wake of high-profile school shootings, abductions and murders of young collegians across the nation. Access to records from your university police department or campus safety office often may be critical for accurate reporting on campus security issues.

The Student Press Law Center conducted an open records test with 21 different colleges and universities, both public and private, requesting two types of crime-related records. We followed the same procedures the SPLC recommends to all student journalists making an open records request: first calling to make a verbal request and then, if necessary, making a formal written request.

In each request we asked for two different records: a copy of the university's crime log and incident reports for either types of crimes or specific incidents that occurred on campus. The crime log is list of police activities (which can include responding to crimes) at or near a college campus, while an incident report is a more detailed narrative of an event requiring police assistance or response.

The Jeanne Clery Act mandates that certain types of information, like the crime log and specified crime statistics, be available to the public. The crime log (sometimes referred to as the media log) will include the nature, time, date, general location and the disposition of the incident. Another useful piece of information mandated by this law is a record of the frequency of certain types of crimes — such as murder, sex offenses and aggravated assault — that have occurred within the past three years.

When first contacting a university, the campus police department is your best choice. Many times, however, police departments will direct you to a public relations office to make an open records request. When speaking with officials, describe in detail the exact records or information you want. Many of the officials we requested the crime log from referred us to the crime statistics, despite the fact that these are two very different types of records. Most of the universities we contacted were more than willing to provide the crime log. But one potential pitfall is that the Clery Act technically only mandates that the log "be open to inspection." Thus, universities may require you to physically come to the campus security office if you want to see the log.

The challenges associated with retrieving Clery Act information should be minimal. The best strategy we have found, even when dealing with the most difficult of administrators or police, is to simply be polite and respectful. If they ask you what you are writing about, tell them as much as you can. If they need a formal open records request, send them one. If they need a few days to confer with school attorneys, be patient. Throughout the process, remain assertive and follow up with administrators accordingly, but above all else simply be nice.

Many administrators and police officers are eager to help assist someone wanting records. Director Larry Wood of Lincoln University and Lt. Mike Orr of East Tennessee State University responded to our requests promptly; we had the records at our office within two days of requesting them.

The information provided by the Clery Act is no doubt helpful to student journalists, but sometimes more detail is needed for accurate reporting. Incident reports can include vital information like names and contact information of people involved in any event requiring police assistance. Incident reports, however, are not required to be disclosed under the Clery Act, and a reporter’s ability to access them depends on two main factors: the open records laws in the state where the college is located, and whether that institution is public or private.

Every state has a different law governing the type of information that must be disclosed and to whom it applies. Most of these laws will apply only to public colleges and universities; security offices at many private colleges will not be required to release more information than the Clery Act mandates. This was the situation the SPLC found itself in many times in our open records test. For example, Santa Clara University and Chapman University in California, Mercyhurst College in Pennsylvania and Simmons College in Massachusetts all denied our request for incident reports.

The one notable exception was LaGrange College, a private college in Georgia, which sent us the records we requested, including incident reports; Georgia has some of the nation’s best open records laws, pertaining to campus police records, according to Frank LoMonte, executive director of the SPLC. Student journalists in Georgia and Virginia are in a unique position compared to those in other states because there are specific state laws that address access to private college police records.

Another important factor to consider when making an open records request is if the law enforcement agency on campus is a police department or a private security agency. Police departments, even at private schools, might be subject to open-records requests, especially if the departments have the power to make arrests and operate as any other type of police department. Private security forces, however, may not be subject to these laws. Randolph College in Virginia, for example, denied our request for an incident report because its Department of Safety and Security is not a law enforcement agency. It is composed of unarmed security officers that do not have the power to arrest, and therefore Randolph takes the position that it is not subject to the state's open records laws, which do require disclosures from state-empowered police forces at private schools.

The requests we sent were created using the automated open-records letter generator located on the SPLC web site. Keep in mind that our letter generator is designed to obtain records from public colleges and other government institutions. If you want to generate a letter to send to a private college, the language will have to be modified; it may be beneficial to speak with the SPLC or a local attorney.

With the exception of LaGrange College, all of the incident reports we received were from public universities. It is important to note that there is no law that prevents private colleges from releasing information found in an incident report, and in general most schools cited privacy concerns as the reason they would not release the records. Some schools also cited the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. FERPA mandates that schools cannot release a student's educational record without that student's consent, but a 1992 amendment to the law clarifies that records maintained and created by a "law enforcement unit" of a college or university do not fall under FERPA's restrictions.

While getting the necessary records in order to accurately report on campus crime presents some obstacles, there are certainly ways to increase your chances of obtaining the necessary information. Being knowledgeable about the law as it pertains to records of public and private colleges and developing working relationships with campus police and administrators are the two most effective strategies for obtaining police records.