Students can report hate crimes to Web site
Published Jan. 29, 2008
Although a Web site to anonymously report hate crimes on campus has been available since November 2007, steps are being taken to make students more aware of the site.
The site will help monitor and address hate crimes at MU. It allows for anonymous submissions from victims or witnesses in order to create statistical data about hate crimes on campus.
MU Equity Office Manager Noel English said students can now report crimes anonymously. The Web site also might bring incidents of bias to the attention of both the Equity Office and MU Police Department more rapidly.
“Our job is to investigate hate crimes,” MUPD spokesman Brian Weimer said. “We will categorize it and see if it meets the Missouri state statute’s definition of a hate crime.”
Weimer said the Missouri State Statute outlines what characteristics denote a hate crime.
Since the bias reporting system site has been online, English said only a couple of students have used it.
English said this could be because the site is still new and many students were off campus during winter break. She also said there will be a marketing plan to publicize the site.
“Any time there is a community of this size, unfortunately there will be crime,” English said.
Missouri Students Association Senate Speaker Jonathan Mays co-authored the MSA bill for the Bias Incident Report in November 2006 and was involved in implementing the Web site.
“We proposed the site and have been working with Noel to get it online,” Mays said. Mays said the site assists with research and allows direct contact between the Equity Office and people who have reported a crime.
While the final version of the site is not up yet, he said the next step is to make sure people know it is available.
Mays said the site has worked as a data tool to collect more information about the incidents of bias that happen around campus.
According to the MUPD Campus Safety and Crime Report, there been no cases of hate crimes since 2004. In 2004, there were three reported hate crimes on campus.