The Brandeis Chief of Public Safety shared the Brandeis University 2022 Annual Security Report on Sept. 7 in an email to community members. The publication and collection of the data in the report is required by federal statutory law, which was recently amended in 2020.
Brandeis Public Safety writes in the publication that they “maintain a close relationship with all police departments in municipalities where Brandeis owns or controls property to ensure that crimes reported directly to these departments that involve Brandeis University are brought to the attention of the University Police.”
Included in the report are various tips on how the Brandeis community can prevent crime and maintain personal safety, as well as different emergency response procedures and other jobs of Brandeis Public Safety such as accessing campus facilities.
The report also mentions sexual and gender-based violence numerous times, and includes the official university response to these actions, writing, “Brandeis University is committed to providing a safe learning and working environment, and in compliance with federal law has adopted these policies and procedures to prevent and respond to incidents of sexual violence, including sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. These guidelines apply to all students, faculty, staff, contractors, and visitors.”
Additionally, the report includes a paragraph on the university’s definition of consent and the importance of obtaining affirmative consent prior to sexual activities. “…If an individual is not sure if they have received consent, they have an obligation to seek additional clarification. Consent must be received for each individual sexual act that a person wishes to engage in with another person(s). Consent may not be inferred from silence or lack of resistance to sexual advances, or from prior consensual sexual contact. Relationship Status is immaterial to the issue of consent. Consent may be withdrawn at any time, and consent to one sexual activity does not imply consent to any subsequent sexual activity,” writes part of the section on the issue.
Alongside prevention efforts and Brandeis policies, the report outlines procedures victims of sexual violence or gender or sex-based discrimination should follow, including ways to report crimes and mental and physical health resources for students after a crime occurs.
The university’s report also includes crime data from the years 2019 to 2021, which was collected through a number of methods. “University Police dispatchers and officers enter all reports of crime incidents made directly to the department through an integrated computer-aided-dispatch systems/records management system,” reads the report. After this, the report is reviewed and classified in the correct category as outlined by the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook and the FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System Handbook.
At the end of the report is a data set on crimes reported to campus authorities. The most prevalent crimes are liquor law violations—with 86 violations in 2019, 161 in 2020 and 47 in 2021—and drug abuse violations. The next most prevalent is sexual crimes and crimes of dating or domestic violence or stalking. According to the report, there were three reported rapes on campus in 2019, two in 2020 and four in 2021.
To read more on Brandeis’ crime statistics for the years of 2019-2021, community members can view the 2022 Annual Security Report on the Brandeis Public Safety website, according to the email.
