Reporting Criminal Actions

Make reports in person or by telephone to campus. The campus safety office can be dialed from most telephones on campus. College Village Housing and 137 Elm St. must dial (440) 775-8911. Potential criminal action and other emergencies on campus may also be reported directly to the Oberlin Police Department, 85 S. Main St., Phone: (440) 774-1061.

Emergency assistance is also available by dialing 911 from your campus telephone. The countywide emergency 911 service will directly contact fire, law enforcement, or EMS rescue services, who may request assistance from Campus Safety. This service is not available when using the campus emergency "Blue Light" telephone system.

The campus safety office coordinates a comprehensive public safety and security program for the college community. The office provides general and emergency response services, life and property protection, and educational programming. The office also alerts representatives of other college services if they are needed by the college community after regular business hours.

Campus Safety Officers

Campus Safety officers are not sworn police officers and have limited arrest powers; however, they work closely with the Oberlin Police Department (OPD) to ensure a safe and secure campus. A professional staff of uniformed Campus Safety officers provides mobile, bicycle, and walking patrols of the campus, including parking lots, residence halls, and administrative and academic buildings.

These officers are responsible for a full range of public safety services, including enforcement of federal, state, and local regulations; initial response to criminal activity; medical and fire emergencies; and other incidents requiring safety and security assistance. Both departments work closely to patrol all public property, including thoroughfares, streets, sidewalks, and parking facilities that are within the campus as well as those areas immediately adjacent to and accessible from the campus. The radio frequency used by the Campus Safety Office is monitored by the OPD .

When a situation requires it, Campus Safety officers will notify the appropriate law enforcement authorities; they will also contact law enforcement officers whenever a victim wishes to do so. In cases involving aggravated criminal offenses (felonies and physical/sexual assaults), Campus Safety will notify the OPD. Existing protocols specify procedures to be followed by the college and the city in the investigation and final disposition of incidents of criminal activity occurring on college property. Information on criminal activity both on and off the campus is shared to the fullest extent possible under existing laws governing privacy of records and reports.

Support Teams

To assist victims of sexual offenses, Oberlin College employs a system of appropriately trained on-call deans. For incidents occurring in the residence halls, residential education staff may facilitate a report to the Campus Safety Office.

Dispatchers are available at the respective telephone numbers, above, 24 hours a day to answer a call. In response to a call, an officer (either Campus Safety, or Oberlin police, if their number or 911 is called instead) will be dispatched, or the victim asked to file an incident report. All incident reports filed with the Oberlin College Campus Safety are forwarded to the Office of the Dean of Students for review and potential follow-up by the class deans, the judicial coordinator, or other appropriate office on campus.

The judicial coordinator also welcomes direct reports from community members. We encourage officers to build rapport with members of the college community in the belief that students and employees will be more likely to report incidents promptly to officers they know and trust.

If a person contacts OPD about criminal activity occurring off campus that involves Oberlin College students, the police may notify the Campus Safety office. However, there is no official OPD policy requiring such notification. Students in these cases may be subject to arrest by OPD and subject to Oberlin College judicial proceedings.

This information is made available to provide Oberlin College community members with specific information about the resources that are available in the event they become a victim of a crime. The information about resources is not provided to infer that those resources are  reporting entities for Oberlin College. Crimes should be reported directly to the Oberlin College Campus Safety to ensure inclusion in the annual crime statistics and to aid in providing timely warning notices to the community, when appropriate.

While there is not a confidential report process, upon request the director, or a designee, may file a report on the details of an incident without reporting the identity of the reporting person. The purpose of this confidential report is to comply with the request to keep the matter confidential, while taking steps to ensure the future safety of the reporting person and the community, and keep an accurate record of the number of incidents affecting the campus community.

Reports filed in this manner are counted and disclosed in the annual crime statistics for the institution and may be included in consideration of issuance of a campus alert to potential danger.