University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Spring Farewell Issue 2017
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spring farewell 2017
MORGAN WINSTONTHE DAILY CARDINAL
What happens after sexual assault alerts? UWPD made one arrest following 24 sexual assualt crime warnings over the last four years By Sammy Gibbons THE DAILY CARDINAL
With a vibrating buzz or a quiet ding, a student at Camp Randall Stadium for this year’s commencement would have checked their phone two dozen times to find warnings of nearby sexual assaults during their last four years at UW-Madison. These alerts rarely have follow-ups. Few of these warnings of sexual assault resulted in police investigations, and even fewer— one out of the 24 total—resulted in an arrest. That arrest ended in deferred prosecution. UW-Madison Police Department officials weren’t surprised by this information—which was obtained through an open records request by The Daily Cardinal—and explained
why so few warnings ultimately yielded arrests. “It’s very possible that many of these, and quite often most of the crime warnings we send out, do not initiate a police investigation at all,” UWPD spokesperson Marc Lovicott said. “If we don’t have a victim, or they don’t want to share the identity of the offender, then we won’t be able to make an arrest.” Lovicott and UWPD Director of Clery Compliance Jaimee Gilford said this is often due to the decisions of survivors, as well as the difficulty of finding the suspect. Lovicott said UWPD is often notified of sexual assaults through third-party reports, typically coming from a Campus Security Authority or housing reports. In other instances, a
survivor may open an investigation but decide to no longer proceed with the process later on. During the years 2013 to 2017, there were 38 total crime warnings, with 24 of those being for varying degrees of sexual assault. UWPD investigated 13 of these sexual assault cases—the rest were reported to different resources. In the situation when a third party is notified of an assault, Gilford is made aware of it and it is determined whether a crime warning should be issued. But, UWPD does not open an investigation unless the survivor comes forward to the department. “We need to make sure, especially with these sensitive crime cases, that … the victim is steering the boat,” Lovicott said. “If they do not want to speak with
police we absolutely respect that. If that’s the case we literally can’t investigate something when we don’t have a victim who’s willing to share information with us.” The goal of the crime warnings is to warn the community of an ongoing threat, according to Gilford, but must protect the identity of the survivor while doing so. Crime warnings are issued under the Clery Act, a federal law that requires all institutions of higher education to have in place particular safety and security policies and report certain crimes to the community, according to Gilford. The warnings are sent when one of the Clery crimes occurs in a timely manner in a Clery geography area, which is defined by oncampus property, public prop-
erty and non-campus property. Gilford is notified of the crimes and consults the UWPD manager-on-call who determines if the crime poses a continuing threat to the community. Gilford said most cases are considered ongoing if the suspect has not been taken into custody. If they decide this is the case, a crime warning is sent to anyone with a UW-Madison email address. Crime warnings are required to include information explaining what triggered the offense, as well as information about what people can do to protect themselves and prevent a recurrence of the crime. A description of the suspect and photographs if available are also included.
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“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”