Panel rejects campus crimes notification requirements

Two measures that would have required campus police departments to notify outside law enforcement and the local commonwealth's attorney when a death or rape is reported failed in votes taken Tuesday by the Virginia State Crime Commission.

However, the commission supported a requirement that mutual aid agreements be established between local law enforcement and campus police in investigating such crimes.

The commission's actions on the failed measures will result in no recommendations about those proposals being forwarded to the upcoming session of the General Assembly.

They were part of amended legislation originally proposed by Del. Paula J. Miller, D-Norfolk, that would require greater collaboration between local and campus police.

Specifically, a measure that would have required campus police to notify local law-enforcement agencies within 24 hours of all deaths and reported felony sexual assaults on campus — with the same requirement for local police if they first took a report — failed on a 5-5 vote.

Then, the commission voted down a measure 7-3 that would have required campus police to notify the local commonwealth's attorney's office within 24 hours after receiving a report of a death or felony sexual assault.

Some commission members expressed concern that campus police agencies were being unfairly singled out, or that the measures had a built-in assumption that campus police were incapable of investigating such crimes independently.

"My issue with this is not so much the notice. Typically I get notice of these things far earlier than 24 hours," said Commissioner Jim Plowman, who serves as Loudoun County commonwealth's attorney. "My issue here is singling out campus police departments. Why are we doing that? We received no information, no evidence, that these campus police departments are somehow inferior, inadequately trained or poorly staffed."

Plowman questioned why "the smallest counties with the tiniest sheriff's offices" also shouldn't be required to have mutual aid agreements. Those agencies "may actually need support from a neighboring jurisdiction or state police."

On the issue of requiring campus police to notify commonwealth's attorneys, Plowman said "you'd see a slew of them here today" if prosecutors truly felt like they were being kept in the dark. "If we truly wanted to enshrine this with a 24-hour notice, I'd say it should be for all law enforcement — not just campus police.

Commissioner Richard Trodden, who will soon step down as Arlington County commonwealth's attorney, held similar views.

"Commonwealth's attorneys always want information, but to be perfectly honest, I don't think this is a problem that needs to be" legislated, he said. "I think we have good relationships with law enforcement."

Commission member W. Gerald Massengill, a retired Virginia State Police superintendent, seemed generally supportive of the measures but urged caution.

"My concern with requiring college police departments to do these type things was not because of the quality of investigations that might or might not be done," he said. "I think my support is trying to get more eyes, if you will, onto these type crimes."

Kathryn Russell, who testified last month that University of Virginia police mishandled the investigation when she reported she had been raped in her dorm room seven years ago, was so infuriated by the commission's rejection of the notification measures that she made an obscene gesture to the panel while leaving the meeting room.

Miller, the Norfolk delegate who originally proposed the legislation, called the commission's actions "a mixed bag."

"We have the mutual aid agreements, which is certainly a start. (I'm) a little disappointed that the mandatory notification failed on a 5-5 vote. Had there been more committee members here, who knows what would have happened."

Three commissioners were absent.

"Of course, this is the first step in the process," she added. "It goes to the General Assembly with the mutual aid agreements, and we can add to it."

Miller said she and other bill supporters will be lobbying commonwealth's attorneys across the state between now and the start of the assembly. She said she has already obtained support from the commonwealth's attorneys in Norfolk, Radford and Albemarle County.

Russell, who had testified about her U.Va. experience, said: "I do wish that some of these individuals in the room today were better informed. I felt that they came with agendas ahead of time. I don't understand why there would be a problem for mandatory notification, especially if it involves a student."

"To hear repeatedly that they feel police departments and campus police departments are professional enough, and will automatically report (crimes to one another), that's a very nice thought," she added. "But it simply is not reality."