Reporting campus crimes accurately is not only key to preventing crime and ensuring safety on your campus – it’s required by law. Yet tracking, managing, and reporting Clery-related incidents to meet federal reporting requirements can be difficult and time consuming. And the consequences of non-compliance can be significant with penalties upward of $54,789 per violation for each infraction.
Your organization can’t risk non-compliance, but it can be challenging to keep up with reporting requirements if you don’t have a software solution that supports your specific needs.
But what exactly should your software solution include?
1. The ability to effectively capture data
Capturing incident data is paramount to ensuring a successful, proactive security presence on your campus. You should look for an established system that helps you effectively capture data from incidents on campus and develop campus-wide plans and procedures for Clery reporting. If your system is confusing or inefficient, your staff are more likely to forego policy or make mistakes.
2. Program adaptability
Because reporting regulations are subject to change with legislative updates, you should look for a system that automatically updates according to the latest legislation.
3. Data organization
Capturing data efficiently and accurately is the first step, but without a high level of organization and cross-referencing, campus security data loses its value. High-quality incident reporting software should assist with data capture and organize detailed records and investigations in an easily searchable, secure database.
4. Clery-specific capabilities
Look for a reporting system with capabilities dedicated to Clery reporting and review. That way, when you’re faced with putting together the ASR, you can easily compile the annual crime report and statistics – complete with newly added categories – in just a few clicks.
5. Easy access to policies to ensure they’re being followed
It’s important that your policy statements and response procedures are readily available and widely distributed to all stakeholders. Your incident reporting system should provide a platform to upload any relevant policy documents so anyone who needs to can quickly access policies and response procedures to ensure compliance is being maintained.
6. Enhanced analytics for trend tracking
Software that allows you to run custom, in-depth statistical analyses on data is an invaluable resource for Clery reporting and an excellent indicator of organizational performance and campus safety developments. Your software should allow you to run reports to track incident trends and identify activity hot spots in order to take preventative action.
Ready to learn more? Contact us for more information or to request a demo.
