Reading Your College's Clery Act Safety Report
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Sep 18, 2026 • Updated Sep 18, 2026 • Student Life
Every college that receives federal aid must publish an Annual Security Report by October 1 each year, showing three years of campus crime data plus safety policies. Search your school's name plus "annual security report" to find it.
🎓 Covers crimes on campus, nearby public property, and school-owned housing
⏱️ Published by October 1 every year, covering the three prior calendar years
📩 Includes policies on sexual assault response, emergency alerts, and missing student notification
💵 Compare numbers across schools using the same crime categories for a fair read
What the Clery Act requires
The Clery Act requires every college and university that participates in federal student aid programs to publish an Annual Security Report (ASR) by October 1 each year. The report includes crime statistics for the three most recent calendar years plus a set of safety policy disclosures, according to the Clery Center . Schools must also notify every enrolled student and employee that the report exists and where to find it.
Where to find it
Search your school's name plus "Annual Security Report" or "Clery report." Most schools post it through the campus police or public safety department's website. You can also compare basic crime numbers across schools through the U.S. Department of Education's campus safety data tool .
What the crime statistics cover
The report breaks down reported incidents by category and by location: on campus, in on-campus student housing, on public property immediately next to campus, and at off-campus locations the school owns or controls, such as a fraternity house.
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Criminal offenses | Murder, sex offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson |
| Hate crimes | Any of the above, plus other crimes motivated by bias, broken down by category |
| VAWA offenses | Domestic violence, dating violence, stalking |
| Arrests and referrals | Weapons violations, drug violations, liquor law violations |
Numbers reflect reports made to campus authorities, not proven convictions, so a higher number at one school compared to another does not always mean it is less safe. It can also mean students there report more often and trust the system more.
The policy sections
Beyond raw numbers, the ASR explains a school's actual safety systems, including:
How the school issues emergency alerts, split between timely warnings for an ongoing threat and emergency notifications for an immediate danger
Prevention and awareness programs for dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking
Procedures for reporting these crimes and how the school responds once notified
Missing student notification policy for schools with on-campus housing
Where to find the separate annual fire safety report, required for schools with residence halls
How to use the report when comparing schools
Read the three-year trend for each category rather than one year in isolation. A jump in sex offense reports, for example, sometimes reflects better reporting systems and awareness campaigns rather than more actual incidents. Read the policy sections alongside the numbers. A school with a specific sexual assault response policy and visible prevention programming gives you more useful information than raw counts alone.
Check whether the school had any recent Clery Act violations or fines. The Department of Education publishes enforcement actions, and repeated violations signal a school that under-reports or mishandles required disclosures.
Why the law exists
The Clery Act is named for Jeanne Clery, a 19-year-old Lehigh University student raped and murdered in her dorm room in April 1986 by a fellow student, according to records of the case . Her parents learned afterward that 37 violent crimes had gone largely undisclosed on campus in the three years before her death, and their advocacy led Congress to pass the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990, later renamed the Jeanne Clery Act. The requirement to publish crime data every year exists specifically so prospective and current students do not have to rely on a school's own marketing to judge campus safety.
Fire safety report
Schools with on-campus student housing publish a separate annual fire safety report alongside the ASR, covering fire statistics, evacuation procedures, and details on sprinkler and alarm systems in each residence hall. Look for it linked from the same campus police or public safety page as the main security report.
The daily crime log
Separate from the Annual Security Report, colleges with their own police or security department keep a daily crime log open to public inspection, updated within two business days of a report. The log lists the type, date, time, and general location of each reported crime, along with its disposition once known. Ask campus police directly for access if you want more current information than the yearly report provides.
Timely warnings
If a reported crime represents an ongoing threat to the campus community, such as a series of robberies near campus, the school must issue a timely warning, usually by email or text alert, so people can protect themselves. These alerts run separately from the annual report but fall under the same Clery Act requirements.
Limits of the report
The ASR only counts crimes reported to campus security authorities or local police, so it misses unreported incidents, and research consistently shows unreported cases make up the majority of sexual assaults. Treat the report as one input among several, alongside conversations with current students and a look at the school's Title IX and disability services pages, rather than a full picture of campus safety on its own.