Mercer’s annual crime report for 2017 indicates that several crimes occurred on our campuses as well as in related off-campus locations during the past year.
The James Kerney Campus saw very little crime, with just one on campus incident of dating violence. On the West Windsor campus, there were two robberies, three burglaries, two incidents of stalking, one incident of domestic violence, and a violation of liquor laws and possession of an illegal firearm.
All colleges that receive federal money are required to release annual crime reports as part of something called the Clery Act. The law is named after a college student, Jeanne Clery, who was murdered at Lehigh University in 1986. After learning that 38 other violent crimes had occurred on that campus without anyone being notified, her parents pushed for a law that would require greater accountability. In addition to the annual reports, colleges also have to keep a daily crime log.
Jim Gardner, Mercer director of Public Relations says, “Overall, I think any college would be pleased with the safety report, the noticeable difference is that the campus has expanded both down in facility and downtown.”
Though, this year’s report also shows that several crimes took place in non-campus buildings, including two rapes, two incidents of domestic violence and one incident of stalking.
The Clery handbook defines on-campus buildings 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.”
When asked what the non-campus buildings were involved in the crimes given on the 2017 report, Michael Flaherty, Commander of Safety and Security at Mercer indicated that he did not know, but said, “Basically, we record all the crimes that take place on the college campus that fall under Clery.”
This is the first year that Mercer has also included Rider University’s crime statistics as an appendix in the annual report. This is necessary because Mercer has established a partnership with Rider that allows students to reside in their dorms. Rider reported very low levels of crime, the main one being a two week period in which eight flyers were set on fire in a residence hall.
Mercer has run into problems with not complying fully with the Clery Act in the past. As reported in The VOICE in 2012, for three years, starting in 2008, the college filed reports listing zero crime of any sort even though crimes had occurred on the campuses. Since the problem was revealed, Mercer has improved its reporting practices, though some issues with the maintenance of daily crime log have persisted.
In 2017 a Mercer student, who had three prior convictions for sex offenses, was arrested after he exposed himself to children in the showers in the PE building. When The VOICE viewed the daily crime log, there was no record of the call made to the West Windsor Police Department to report the incident or the visit from the police to pick up the student.
By contrast, as recently as Nov. 12 when an altercation broke about between two students and one student was punched badly enough to require first aid, the log was updated with the information.
Compared to other community colleges in New Jersey, Mercer’s levels of crime are moderate.
