West Virginia Code 18B-4-5a – Crimes committed on campus of institutions of higher education
(a) The president or a designee of each state institution of higher education shall on a regular and timely basis provide information to the public concerning alleged crimes occurring on the institution's property which have been reported to a campus police officer or any other officer of the institution.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 18B-4-5a
- Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
- commission: means the commission created by §. See West Virginia Code 18B-1-2
- Council: means the West Virginia Council for Community and Technical College Education created by §. See West Virginia Code 18B-1-2
- in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, or figures, whether by printing, engraving, writing, or otherwise. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Offense: includes every act or omission for which a fine, forfeiture, or punishment is imposed by law. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- State institution of higher education: means any university, college, or community and technical college under the jurisdiction of a governing board as that term is defined in this section. See West Virginia Code 18B-1-2
(1) A crime is considered reported when:
(A) A campus police officer or other officer of the institution determines that the report is credible;
(B) The report is submitted in writing and attested to by the victim on forms at the institution for such purpose; or
(C) The institution is notified by a law-enforcement agency of the reporting of a crime alleged to have occurred on the institution's property.
(2) Such reports are referred within twenty-four hours to the appropriate law-enforcement agencies, as defined in section one, article twenty-nine, chapter thirty of this code, for further investigation.
(b) For the state institutions of higher education under the jurisdiction of the Governing Board of Marshall University and for the state institution of higher education known as West Virginia University only, the campus police shall investigate a crime within their respective jurisdictions for up to thirty days if the county prosecuting attorney does not reassign the case to another agency sooner.
(c) The information required to be made available to the public regarding the crime report shall be available within ten days of the report. The information shall include the nature of the criminal offense, the date of the offense, the general location of the offense (such as a designation of a specific building or area of the campus) and the time of day when the offense occurred.
(1) This subsection does not require the release of any information which may disclose the identity of the victim.
(2) The institution shall withhold the information required to be made available to the public for a longer period upon certification of investigative need that the information be withheld from the public.
(A) The certification shall be filed by an officer of one of the investigating law-enforcement agencies with the president of the institution or the designee to whom the duties required by this section have been delegated.
(B) The required information may not be withheld after an arrest has been made in connection with the crime report.
(d) For purposes of this section, "crime" is defined as those offenses required to be reported under the federal Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990, as amended. "Crime" includes murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft and arrests for liquor, drug or weapons laws violations.
(e) The Council and Commission shall provide crime reporting forms to institutions under their respective jurisdictions and promulgate a rule pursuant to the provisions of article three-a, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code as necessary to implement this section.