NY Senate expected to pass college safety bill
JOSEFA VELASQUEZ |
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) Sixteen years after the disappearance of a University at Albany student, lawmakers are asking to update state law to require New York colleges and universities to inform law enforcement within 24 hours of a violent felony or a missing student.
The state Legislature passed the Campus Safety Act in 1999, a year after Suzanne Lyall disappeared. It requires colleges and universities to have plans for notifying local law enforcement of any violent felony offense or missing person on campus. But it didn't require the schools to actually report such incidents to outside authorities.
The University at Albany and the State University of New York Cortland have their own police force on campus that investigates violent felonies. A spokesman for SUNY Cortland says the school's police department has a memorandum of understanding between campus police and the city police department regarding the investigations.
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