The 2017 Clery Report was emailed to the students and staff of California Lutheran University on Sept. 26. The Clery Report is published annually by universities that receive federal funding, reporting on campus security statistics from the past three years, according to the Clery Center website.

The 2017 Clery Report contains crime statistics from the 2014, 2015 and 2016 calendar years, said Director of Campus Safety David Hilke in an email interview.

The 2016 statistics in the report showed both increases and decreases in different categories of on-campus crimes. The Cal Lutheran main campus in Thousand Oaks saw an increase in the category of “sex-offense-rape” from zero cases in 2014, one case in 2015 and two cases reported in 2016.

“It is not necessarily bad if the numbers increase, it could mean that more people are aware and comfortable with Title IX investigation and resolution process, therefore they report an incident,” said Title IX Coordinator Jim McHugh in an email interview. “I believe the increase can be attributed to an improvement in education on the process and ensuring the word gets out about where to find out information and the Title IX and Sexual Misconduct website on the CLU website.”

The report also showed that aggravated assault cases on the main campus went from zero in 2014, three cases in 2015 and two cases in 2016.

“Aggravated assault is an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury,” Hilke said.

The number of cases of “burglary unlawful entry- no force” stayed between two and five cases per year over the last three years. Inversely, the number of “liquor law violations referred for disciplinary action” has decreased each year for the past three years. There were 154 liquor law violations in 2014, 74 in 2015 and 54 violations in 2016.

“In 2015, a clearer definition for possession of alcohol was given,” Hilke said. “A conversation with local law enforcement revealed that persons under the age of 21, would be cited for possession of alcohol if that person had alcohol in their hand or within their control.” 

Officer Don Aguilar, assistant police chief of the Thousand Oaks Police Department said that they work with campus safety and residence assistants on alcohol violations.

“That whole education process I think has really, really been improved and streamlined and I think that’s the success you see with less reported liquor incidents, at least on campus,” Aguilar said.

The number of cases of stalking increased in the report over the last three years. There was one case of stalking reported in 2014, two cases in 2015 and six cases reported in 2016.

“Of the six reported incidents of stalking [in 2016], a single individual was reported by four different reporting parties. The other two reported incidents of stalking are unrelated,” Hilke said. 

The other Cal Lutheran campuses in Woodland Hills, Oxnard and Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary also published Clery reports for 2017. The Oxnard campus only has one crime in the Clery report for the last three years. The case was in the category of “sex-offense fondling” which is defined in the Clery Report as “the touching of the private body parts of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, without the consent of the victim.”

Bryan Rupley, site supervisor for the Oxnard campus, said that the case of fondling occurred on a July evening in 2016 and that the perpetrator was a visitor to the Oxnard campus. Rupley said that while the victim decided not to press charges, the incident did cause the campus to change procedure when admitting people into the building.

“As a result of the incident, we began requiring the swipe of Cal Lutheran ID cards to access to both the Oxnard and Woodland Hills centers,” Rupley said in an email interview. “Anyone unable to identify themselves as a Cal Lutheran student or faculty or staff member will not be allowed to enter.”

Rupley said that the incident was acted on quickly with an instructor escorting the perpetrator away from the situation until police arrived. He said that campus safety and Oxnard Police filed incident reports.

“Upon arrival, the police officers were given a description of what happened and they proceeded to speak with both parties. Campus Safety was kept in the loop via email. Our staff’s main concern was the safety and well-being of the victim as well as others in the class, and we acted to ensure that,” Rupley said.

The Clery Report is one tool through which crime is reported and categorized. Aguilar said that residents should call the police if they are concerned that crime is taking place.

“Our number one motto or recommendation for all of our citizens is if you are thinking about calling in about a crime or suspicious activity and are kind of wavering on it we always tell people ‘call in, call 911 if you think that something is not right,’” Aguilar said. “Because that gives us time to get out there and good response times out to the campus to make heads or tails of it.”

Nicki Schedler
Reporter