Providing a safe and secure campus is of the utmost importance to the College. Physical plant personnel maintain the campus and are responsible for providing 24-hour-a-day campus security. The manager of campus safety, security, and Clery is responsible for campus safety and security and supervises campus security personnel. Cottey’s campus security personnel do not have special training, are not armed, and do not have the authority to make arrests. They have the authority to ask individuals for identification and to determine whether individuals have lawful business at Cottey College. Campus security personnel have the authority to issue parking tickets, which are billed to the appropriate student, faculty, and staff through the business office. They are available to assist students and employees in non-emergency situations. Campus security personnel patrol the campus grounds and buildings, check doors and generally deter crime. The members of campus security have the authority to enforce College policies and violations of the law are also violations of College policies. Campus security personnel have the jurisdiction to operate on Cottey College-owned or controlled property.
The College has a strong, open-door relationship with area law enforcement and public safety officials. Campus security personnel and other College officials work closely with members of the Nevada Police Department and Fire Department and other local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to ensure a safe and secure campus. Campus officials responsible for safety and security meet and/or communicate both formally and informally with law enforcement and public safety officials. Information on criminal activity both on- and off-campus is shared to the fullest extent possible under existing laws governing the privacy of records and reports. Criminal incidents are referred to the Nevada Police Department which has jurisdiction on the campus. The College will cooperate with the Nevada Police Department and other local, state, or federal law enforcement agencies that are responsible for the investigation and final disposition of incidents of criminal activity occurring on college property. The Nevada Fire Department responds to all on-campus fire alarms that are reported by calling 911.
Cottey College does not have a written formal memorandum of understanding with the Nevada Police Department or any other local, state, or federal law enforcement agency for the investigation of alleged criminal offenses.
When a situation is required, campus security personnel will notify the Nevada Police Department. Those situations include all Clery Act offenses, including murder and non-negligent homicide, negligent manslaughter, rape, fondling, incest, statutory rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson, and hate crimes, including all the previously identified crimes that were motivated by bias, and also including larceny-theft, simple assault, intimidation, and destruction/damage/vandalism of property that are motivated by bias. Other reports may include incidents of drug law violations, liquor law violations, private property motor vehicle accidents, crimes that appear to constitute a pattern, suspicious circumstances that may be a safety concern to the community or to the responding security personnel and or persons who may fall within actions where the College might wish to invoke the state criminal trespass law. Campus security personnel will also assist community members in contacting law enforcement officers whenever an individual wishes to do so and recommend to individuals reporting crimes only to campus security that they also report the crime to the Nevada Police Department.
For the purposes of the Clery Act, non-campus buildings or property is defined as any building or property owned or controlled by a student organization that is officially recognized by the institution, or any building or property owned or controlled by an institution that is used in direct support of, or in relation to the institution’s educational purposes, is frequently used by students, and is not within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution. Therefore, there is no monitoring and recording through local police agencies of criminal activity by students at non-campus locations of student organizations officially recognized by the institution, including student organizations with non-campus residence life facilities as no such locations exist.
All crime victims and witnesses are strongly encouraged to immediately report the crime to campus security personnel and the Nevada Police Department. Prompt reporting will help to ensure timely warning notices on campus and timely disclosure of crime statistics. Members of the Cottey College community are encouraged to accurately and promptly report crime and emergencies to the campus security personnel and the Nevada Police Department, including when the individual victim of a crime elects to or is unable to, make such a report.