Campus Rape Reporting Not Always Clear-Cut

The arrest of Joshua M. Elster '00 on rape charges follows other accusations of rape on campus in the past year.

As in the Elster case, the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) failed to fully report at least one of these accusations in its public logs.

HUPD arrested Sung Hoon Cho, 25, a male Summer School student after a female student, also attending the Sum- mer School, claimed that he raped her at BryantHall, according to HUPD spokesperson Peggy A.McNamara. Both the incident and the arrestoccurred on Aug. 1, 1997.

But neither the crime nor the arrest appear inthe HUPD log published on its Web site. All otherpolice activities that day--except those callswhich produced no report--are documented in theWeb log.

The official police log, accessible to thepublic at HUPD headquarters at 29 Garden St., didcontain a description of the arrest, in additionto a list of all other incidents reported in theWeb log.

Both logs are titled, "Harvard UniversityPolice: Press Log."

Harvard spokesperson Joe Wrinn said events inthe Web log are entered only once, and the Web logis never updated, in contrast to the official log,which is reviewed and updated regularly.

Wrinn added that police administrators orofficers create the Web log through a differentdata process from the one used for the officiallog.

Wrinn emphasized that the law does not requireHUPD to publish a log on the Web.

"We put the Web site out voluntarily in orderto make information more accessible to thepublic," he said.

Wrinn said the University tries to make its Webcoverage as accurate as possible and does notwithold information from the public.

"There is no reason whatsoever why Harvardwould want to keep these incidents from thepublic," he said.

In explaining the omissions from the Web logfor the August incident, and from the official logfor the recent rape charges, Wrinn said thecurrent computer system for entering informationinto the logs is "a complicated system unadaptedto the different kinds of data."

Wrinn added that Police Chief Francis H. "Bud"Riley plans to revamp the computer system to "makethe recording of information as adaptable andflexible as possible."

Last Nov. 15, HUPD responded to another rapecall at Gibbs Laboratory, according to McNamara.She said the female victim was affiliated withHarvard. The victim did not press charges on theoffender.

The official log lists this call. There is noWeb log for last November.

At least one other rape was reportedconfidentially to HUPD last year, McNamara toldThe Crimson last fall

But neither the crime nor the arrest appear inthe HUPD log published on its Web site. All otherpolice activities that day--except those callswhich produced no report--are documented in theWeb log.

The official police log, accessible to thepublic at HUPD headquarters at 29 Garden St., didcontain a description of the arrest, in additionto a list of all other incidents reported in theWeb log.

Both logs are titled, "Harvard UniversityPolice: Press Log."

Harvard spokesperson Joe Wrinn said events inthe Web log are entered only once, and the Web logis never updated, in contrast to the official log,which is reviewed and updated regularly.

Wrinn added that police administrators orofficers create the Web log through a differentdata process from the one used for the officiallog.

Wrinn emphasized that the law does not requireHUPD to publish a log on the Web.

"We put the Web site out voluntarily in orderto make information more accessible to thepublic," he said.

Wrinn said the University tries to make its Webcoverage as accurate as possible and does notwithold information from the public.

"There is no reason whatsoever why Harvardwould want to keep these incidents from thepublic," he said.

In explaining the omissions from the Web logfor the August incident, and from the official logfor the recent rape charges, Wrinn said thecurrent computer system for entering informationinto the logs is "a complicated system unadaptedto the different kinds of data."

Wrinn added that Police Chief Francis H. "Bud"Riley plans to revamp the computer system to "makethe recording of information as adaptable andflexible as possible."

Last Nov. 15, HUPD responded to another rapecall at Gibbs Laboratory, according to McNamara.She said the female victim was affiliated withHarvard. The victim did not press charges on theoffender.

The official log lists this call. There is noWeb log for last November.

At least one other rape was reportedconfidentially to HUPD last year, McNamara toldThe Crimson last fall