U. Police not required to log all crimes

University Police are not required by law to record all incident reports in the department's log book, Chief of Police Operations Maureen Rush said yesterday. The log book is the only crime record made available to the general public. The University's compliance policy with the Pennsylvania College and University Security Information Act, established under former University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich, states specifically that "this Journal is a chronological listing of all crimes and significant incidents responded to and documented by University Police." According to Rush, an incident report is filed for each "event" to which University Police respond. But she said only specific incidents affecting "the community" are recorded in the journal. "Personal incidents are not in the log book," she said, listing suicides and rapes as examples of personal incidents. The disclosure policy provides that "the University will, as appropriate, inform the members of the Penn community when an incident had been so reported." There is, therefore, no public access to information dealing with the number of rapes on campus, as they are not logged in the incident book. But University rape victims do have the option to report rapes to the Philadelphia police. If they choose to do so, Philadelphia police would log the rape, but it would still not be logged with University Police. The log book also contains information sent to the state to be used in its annual crime reports, according to Rush. Penn police currently log only those significant crimes that occur within their jurisdiction area, which extends from the Schuylkill River to 43rd Street and from Market Street to Baltimore Avenue. A second log book will soon be added to record crimes reported outside of University Police jurisdiction. In a letter to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Public Safety Managing Director Tom Seamon noted that officers do not record investigations in the crime log "unless criminal charges are warranted." Rush also said Penn police are not required to log incidents that occur within their jurisdiction but are instigated in another district. For example, last Thursday, Milbourne, Pa., police chased four robbery suspects into University jurisdiction. Penn police joined Milbourne officers at the 3900 block of Ludlow Street. Shots were allegedly fired by Milbourne Police Chief Robert Scott. Two of the suspects were apprehended, one by a Penn officer. An incident report was filed at the station, but the event did not appear in the crime log. According to Rush, since the chase was initiated by Milbourne Police and suspects were taken by the Milbourne Police, Penn officers had no reason to document it in the log available to the public. But Rush declined to comment on whether Penn police have a responsibility to report the incident since the apprehension occurred in University Police territory.