Annual Security and Fire Safety Report

Reporting crime 

Prompt reporting of a crime or emergency 

Community members, students, faculty, staff, and visitors are encouraged to accurately and promptly report all crimes and public safety-related incidents to University Police or the appropriate police agency when the victim of a crime elects to, or is unable to, make such a report.

Call any of the following authorities, 24 hours a day: 

  • Dial 911. Report emergencies or non-emergency criminal violations by dialing 911. 
  • Dial 217-333-8911. Report non-emergency requests for police services by dialing 217-333-8911. 
  • Emergency phones. For direct access to University Police headquarters, use any of the approximately 675 blue emergency phones located in walkways, buildings, bus shelters and elevators throughout campus. 
  • Rape Crisis 24-Hour Hotline. Call the community Rape Crisis 24-Hour Hotline at 217-384-4444 to request crisis services. 
  • Crime Stoppers. Report information about a crime anonymously by calling 217-373-TIPS, visiting 373tips.com or by downloading the P3 Tips mobile app. 

For general information, contact the University Police Department at 217-333-1216 (non- emergencies), dial 911 (emergencies only), or use the emergency telephones located near residence halls, parking lots, and campus buildings. Any suspicious activity or person seen in the parking lots or loitering around vehicles, inside buildings or around residence halls should be reported to police.

Crimes should be reported to University Police or a Campus Security Authority for the purpose of making timely warning reports to the community and for inclusion in the annual statistical disclosure.

Crimes involving sexual misconduct may also be reported to the Title IX Coordinator in the Title IX Office.

Amnesty for 911 callers 

In general, it is the intention of the university and surrounding community public safety officials to support students who are taking steps to ensure others’ safety. Both Illinois state law and university procedure protect students from experiencing legal or academic consequences for certain violations, like underage consumption of alcohol, when they call 911 in an emergency. This protection applies to both the caller and the person in need of emergency assistance. These guidelines are intended to help students take appropriate action in high-risk situations by reducing students’ fear of legal or disciplinary consequences to the victim or themselves.

Campus Security Authorities 

All Clery Act crimes reported to a Campus Security Authority (CSA) will be evaluated for the purposes of making timely warning notifications to the campus community and for inclusion in the annual disclosure of crime statistics.

A person may be a CSA if they fall into one or more of four categories: 

  1. University Police Department personnel and department administrators. 
  2. Non-police individuals of offices responsible for campus security. These CSAs have security presence or access control authority on university property, including, but not limited to, security guards, student patrol officers, security staff at athletic events, and student ID checkers for the Division of Campus Recreation. 
  3. Officials with significant responsibility for student and campus activities. This category is defined broadly to ensure complete coverage and thorough reporting of crimes. To determine which individuals or organizations are CSAs, consider job functions that involve relationships with students. Look for officials (not support staff) whose functions involve relationships with students. An official is defined as any person who has the authority and the duty to take action or respond to particular issues on behalf of the university. If someone has significant responsibility for student and campus activities, they are a CSA. Some examples of CSAs in this category include, but are not limited to: deans, student affairs professionals, student housing staff, athletic director/assistant directors, coaches, student activities coordinators, Title IX coordinator, student judicial officers, faculty/staff advisers to student organizations, director of the health center, victim advocates, and faculty/staff who lead university- sponsored overnight student travel.
  4. Any individual or organization specified in an institution’s statement of campus security policy as an individual or organization to which students and employees should report criminal offenses.

When a CSA is made aware of a Clery Act-qualifying crime, they are required to report it to the Clery Compliance office. CSAs need to gather incident information that would provide sufficient detail to properly classify the incident. CSAs should not investigate the crime or attempt to determine whether a crime, in fact, took place.

The Clery Compliance office, working in conjunction with University Police, reviews CSA reports and makes a determination if an incident warrants timely warning and/or emergency notification of the university community and whether it is a reportable crime in the Annual Security and Fire Safety Report. The Clery Compliance Coordinator will consolidate crime data from multiple sources, report qualifying crime data to the federal Department of Education, publish campus security reports and inform the campus community when and where Annual Security and Fire Safety Reports are available.

How police respond to a report 

In response to a call of a reported crime or an emergency, University Police will take the required action, either dispatching an officer or asking the victim to report to the Public Safety Building to file an incident report. All university incident reports are reviewed by the Detective Bureau and, when appropriate, assigned to a detective for follow-up investigation and/or forwarded to the State’s Attorney’s Office for prosecution. University incident reports are also forwarded to the Office for Student Conflict Resolution for review and referral for potential action, as appropriate.

Additional information obtained via the investigation will also be forwarded to the Office for Student Conflict Resolution, as deemed appropriate. If assistance is required from the local police or fire departments, University Police will contact the appropriate department.

If a sexual assault or rape should occur, staff on the scene, including University Police, will offer the victim a variety of services. The University Police Department can provide Special Victims Unit detectives specially trained in evidence collection, trauma-informed interviewing techniques and other best practices.

Voluntary confidential reporting 

We encourage anyone who witnessed or has been a victim of a crime to immediately report the incident by calling 911, or for a non-emergency, 217-333-8911. Police reports in the state of Illinois are public records, and University Police cannot hold reports of crime in confidence.

If you are the victim of a crime and you have questions, if you are uncertain or do not want to pursue action within the university or the criminal justice system, you may want to consider making a confidential report. Information disclosed as part of a confidential report will be maintained in a confidential manner to the extent allowable by law and will not be disclosed without your consent to anyone outside of the office to which it is reported. However, consent may not be required in limited situations, such as suspected child or adult abuse or neglect, court orders or subpoenas, or danger to self or others.

Some on-campus resources offer confidentiality, sharing options and advice. This privilege is limited to the Counseling Center, McKinley Health Center and the Women’s Resources Center. The latter is the designated counseling space providing confidentiality for survivors of sexual misconduct. Employees of McKinley Health Center are Campus Security Authorities required to make disclosures about certain crimes to University Police, but those disclosures are not required to contain personally identifiable information. Persons making confidential reports to these organizations may authorize the disclosure of certain information about the incident to university authorities for inclusion in the annual crime reporting statistics.

Additional resources

There is a variety of resources available for victims, and some campus units may provide their own in-house confidential resources. Visit wecare.illinois.edu/resources.

Working closely with partner agencies 

University Police maintain a close working relationship with the Champaign and Urbana police departments and the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office. University Police and the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office, Champaign Police and Urbana Police have mutual-aid agreements to provide each other routine and emergency police services, including assistance with criminal investigations. Each department assists during mutual investigations, arrests and prosecutions. University Police attend monthly meetings with local law enforcement agencies to exchange ideas and discuss problems that are of concern in the university community.