The Daily is responsible for reporting on crime and safety incidents relevant to the University community. But how do the incidents reported in The Daily’s weekly Police Blotter differ from those that reach community members via AlertSU? 

Under the Clery Act — a consumer protection law that requires college and university officials to be transparent about campus crime — institutions of higher education must publish an annual security report and issue timely warnings and emergency notifications. 

Timely warnings and emergency notifications are only released when campus officials reason that there is a serious or ongoing threat to the community. At Stanford, these reports are issued in the form of an AlertSU. 

The Daily’s weekly Police Blotter often includes crimes about which students were not notified via AlertSU. The Blotter lists incidents over the past week as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) bulletin, which The Daily accesses every Tuesday. 

Rather than including incidents that occurred during the past week, the Blotter covers incidents that were reported to the SUDPS throughout the week, meaning that the incidents included may have occurred before the current week. 

If we find that the weekly SUDPS bulletin lists an incident — like a sexual assault — that merits further reporting and attention, The Daily always reaches out to SUDPS for additional information on the incident and may assign a reporter to dig deeper and follow up with additional reporting as necessary.

The Daily welcomes your questions about our crime and safety reporting. If you have further questions, please reach out to The Daily’s news editors at news ‘at’ stanforddaily.com.