2015 AFSSR

The 2015 Annual Fire Safety and Security Report for Occidental College (also known as the Clery Report) is available for download here. If you would like a hard copy of the report, please contact Victor Clay, chief of campus safety, at vclay@oxy.edu.

This report is required by the federal Clery Act and contains policy statements on safety and security as well as crime statistics for the 2014 calendar year (January-December) and two previous calendar years. The statistics cover certain categories of crimes specified in the Clery Act that occurred in Occidental’s Clery reporting area, namely on campus; on public property immediately adjacent to campus; in off-campus buildings or on off-campus property owned or controlled by the College; and on property controlled by organizations recognized by the College (such as Greek houses). As in previous years, maps of the Clery reporting areas are included in the report for your reference.

Although not required by the Clery Act, Occidental continues to report statistics concerning Clery crimes that are reported outside of the Clery reporting area but within the boundaries of Campus Safety’s escort program.  The College provides this additional data on a voluntary basis because Oxy is a residential campus in an urban environment, and many Oxy students either live or spend time inside the escort area boundaries.  In past years, these statistics were reported as a supplement to the Clery report; this year they are included within the report itself.

Crime categories in this year’s report reflect changes required by law. On March 7, 2013, President Obama signed the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA) that, among other provisions, amended the Clery Act. Notably, VAWA amended the Clery Act to require institutions for the first time to compile statistics about the number of incidents of dating violence, domestic violence and stalking and revise the definition of rape to reflect the Federal Bureau of Investigation's updated definition, which encompasses the categories of rape, sodomy, and sexual assault. Among other changes, the updated definition no longer uses the terms “forcible" and “non-forcible" regarding sexual assault. The new requirements went into effect on July 1, 2015.

To ensure that it is in full compliance with the Clery Act, Occidental continuously reviews its previously reported crime data in light of reporting guidance provided by the U.S. Department of Education. This 2015 report includes revisions to Oxy’s statistics that reflect both over-reporting and under-reporting of crime on and near campus in calendar years 2012 and 2013. 

For 2012, the retroactive changes are:

• Reduce on-campus robbery from 1 to 0. No documentation could be found to support the single on-campus robbery that was noted in the 2014 AFSSR.
• Increase public property aggravated assault from 0 to 1. One aggravated assault was inadvertently omitted from the 2014 AFSSR. This incident was included in the statistics as a hate crime, but should also be included in the general crime category.
• Reduce on-campus burglary from 11 to 8, and increase residence hall burglary from 4 to 5. No documentation could be found to support two on-campus burglaries that were noted in the 2014 AFSSR. One residence hall burglary was incorrectly categorized as on-campus only, but should also have been included in the residence hall category. The 2015 report omits one campus burglary because the theft in that case occurred in an open office area during normal business hours when others had lawful access. An incident of this kind should be classified as larceny, not burglary, and is therefore not reportable under Clery. 
• Increase public property hate crimes from 4 to 5. An aggravated assault based on sexual orientation and race (which was counted in 2014) involved another crime against a different victim that was not counted in 2014. 

For 2013, the retroactive changes are:

• Reduce public property arson from 1 to 0. Upon review, this incident did not meet the definition of arson because it was determined through investigation by an official fire authority that it did not qualify as arson.
• Increase public property motor vehicle theft from 1 to 2 and decrease on-campus motor vehicle theft from 2 to 1. A motor vehicle theft counted as on-campus in 2014 should have been counted in the public property category, because the car was stolen from the street.