How Milestone helps universities comply with theClery act

The Clery Act is a federal law in the United States that requires colleges and universities receiving federal funding to maintain and disclose information about crime on and near their campuses.

Officially known as the ‘Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act’, it was enacted in 1990 in response to the tragic 1986 murder of Jeanne Clery, a Lehigh University student. 

The key requirements are:

1. Maintain a publicly accessible daily crime log.
2. Issue timely warnings about emergency situations.
3. Comply with the rights of victims of sexual or domestic abuse
4. Conduct regular safety audits and training
5. Publish an annual security report (ASR)

The bottom line is that the Clery Act is a federal law, and universities that fail to meet its requirements can face significant legal and financial consequences, including fines from the Department of Education. Compliance with the law also helps protect your university from reputational damage, legal challenges or loss of funding.

The Clery Act holds institutions accountable for how they handle campus safety and crime. This accountability incentivizes universities to improve their safety protocols, enhance support services for victims of crime, and implement effective prevention programs.

And compliance with the Clery Act ensures that prospective and current students, as well as their families, have access to accurate information about the safety of a campus. This transparency allows individuals to make informed decisions when choosing or continuing their education at a particular
institution.

It also helps contribute to a better campus atmosphere. After all, students and faculty need a safe environment to learn and work effectively. By fulfilling their Clery Act obligations, universities can allow the focus to be on education and personal development, rather than concerns over safety or crime. 

Modern video management software (VMS) such as Milestone’s XProtect has emerged as a critical tool in supporting institutions' compliance efforts.  
 
VMS’ combined with cameras and sensors can serve as unbiased witnesses, capturing and preserving critical evidence that might otherwise be lost. Not to mention a great deterrent against crimes on campus. 

Let’s dive into the ways Milestone’s product suite can help universities comply with each element of the Clery Act.

1. Maintain a publicly accessible daily crime log. 

Universities must maintain a daily crime log that is accessible to the public and records all criminal incidents and alleged criminal incidents reported to campus police or security.  

They must also log crimes that happen in public properties adjacent to campus, and to other university-owned properties that are not on campus, such as student accommodation. This crime log must be made available to the public during daily business hours. 

A full security installation complete with cameras and sensors can help you get a full picture of the incidents and crimes that have happened on campus and verify the details aiding in accurate documentation. And analytics can help you gain an even more granular insight into the facts behind the crime. 

The Alarm Manager in XProtect’s Smart Client lets you get statistical data about the alarms triggered in the XProtect VMS system over a certain period of time, allowing you to get a good picture of the amount of incidents on campus. 

Universities such as Milestone customer The State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo also deploys Blue Light emergency phones integrated with XProtect around campus. When someone picks up a Blue Light phone to make a call, the system moves the nearest camera to view the phone station, providing real-time situational awareness and recordings of the video.  

By confirming or disproving the occurrence of certain incidents, video footage can prevent over- or under-reporting of crimes. Footage can also be used to resolve disputes and corroborate testimonies, helping universities compile accurate crime statistics. 

After the facts have been established, a full report will need to be created. Having a system that can log incidents is essential to having a reliable and accurate daily record.  

This may involve interfacing with more than one system. Since universities also need to report on crimes happening adjacent to campus as well as on campus, this is likely to involve sharing data with a local police department. Many universities find the Milestone Evidence Plugin from Dynamic Workflow Solutions is an elegant solution to this.   
 
Another great option for automated incident logging is the XProtect extension XProtect Incident Manager. Whatever your requirements, a Milestone reseller can support you to find the right application.

2. Issue timely warnings about emergency situations. 

Institutions are required to issue timely warnings to the campus community about serious crimes that pose an ongoing threat, significant emergencies or dangerous situations. The crucial first part here is “timely.” The faster you can identify an ongoing threat, the timelier the warning to your campus can be.

Here’s where a sophisticated security installation helps you stay alert to imminent danger. Your cameras, your weapon detection analytics, your access control system, your smoke and fire sensors, your LPR system identifying known repeat offenders, and so much more, working in conjunction with each other in a fully connected and centralized system. Any of these can trigger an alarm in the system and alert your security team instantly. 

But XProtect can go beyond that, and this is where the “warning” part comes in. Because our data-driven software can also trigger other events such as a mass notification. This could be sent to mobile phones on campus or be broadcast over loudspeakers, telling everyone on campus to lock down or evacuate during a serious incident, whether that’s an active shooter situation or another emergency.

By automatically triggering events in XProtect, you can customize your installation to ensure the Clery Act’s timely warning requirements are met.  

3. Comply with the rights of victims of sexual or domestic abuse 

The Clery Act requires colleges and universities to provide transparency around campus crime statistics and uphold specific rights for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.

For victims of sexual or domestic abuse, video management systems can provide objective documentation that can corroborate their accounts — particularly valuable when trauma can affect the recollection of events.

Campus safety teams can, for example, use XProtect to identify assailants through high-definition footage and integrated access control systems, especially in high-risk areas like parking lots and isolated walkways.

Beyond reactive measures, visible camera installations serve as powerful deterrents, with research indicating that it could reduce crime by as much as 25%. For many survivors, knowing that video monitoring systems are present provides a crucial sense of security that can impact reporting decisions. When incidents occur, advanced analytics allow for thorough review without requiring victims to repeatedly recount traumatic experiences.

When implementing any VMS, balancing security needs with privacy rights is essential. Institutions must establish clear policies excluding monitoring in sensitive areas and implement technical safeguards like privacy masking for residence hall windows or counseling center entrances.

Victim privacy depends on robust data security measures, including end-to-end encryption and role-based system access management that ensures sensitive footage remains accessible only to authorized personnel. XProtect fulfills all those needs.

And any use of a VMS should reflect trauma-informed principles, including minimizing the number of times victims must view footage and training security personnel in trauma-sensitive investigative approaches. Institutions should maintain transparency about camera locations, retention policies, and footage access procedures in their annual security reports and campus safety websites.

With these considerations in mind, institutions can significantly strengthen their Clery Act compliance while better supporting victims of sexual and domestic abuse throughout the reporting and investigation process. 

4. Conduct regular safety audits and training 

Milestone software can transform how universities conduct safety audits and training required by the Clery Act.

By analyzing surveillance footage, university security teams can identify security vulnerabilities on campus. For example, areas which are poorly lit or that have insufficient patrols can be highlighted, allowing your university to revise campus design, resource allocation or security policies.

Another popular example we find with our customers is the deployment of video analytics software such as BriefCam. Using BriefCam Research, universities can identify areas where vehicles are consistently traveling above the speed limit and revise the design of the campus. Security personnel can build the case for funding for a new speed bump, or to simply block those areas off. 

For training requirements, VMS and video analytics platforms can all deliver powerful learning tools. Security departments can develop realistic, scenario-based training using de-identified campus footage, helping campus security better recognize reportable situations. The visual nature of these materials improves information retention compared to text-based training alone.

Emergency response exercises benefit similarly, as teams can practice using actual campus environments visible through the surveillance system. This approach allows for more effective post-exercise analysis and procedural improvements.

Universities implementing VMS for compliance should establish straightforward governance policies covering footage retention, access controls, and privacy protection. Regular system verification ensures cameras remain operational – non-functioning equipment creates compliance vulnerabilities.

By embedding our video security software into safety programs, universities can transform Clery requirements from an administrative procedure into meaningful security improvements that protect campus communities. 

5. Publish an annual security report (ASR)

The Clery Act requires colleges and universities that receive federal funding to publish a public annual security report and distribute it to employees and students every October 1st.

The ASR must include statistics of crimes on campus for the preceding three calendar years, plus details about efforts taken to improve campus safety.

It must also include policy statements about (but not limited to) crime reporting, campus facility security and access, law enforcement authority, incidence of alcohol and drug use, and the prevention of/response to sexual assault, domestic or dating violence and stalking.

We can’t write the ASR for you. The task of logging your statistics and your efforts to improve security remains firmly yours. But everything you need to share is data. Our video management software is essentially a sophisticated way to connect data sources. Whether that’s video data, license plate data, case logging data, access data, any number of other data — our software is data-driven.

And video evidence can strengthen the report. Security teams use video footage to accurately classify incidents within Clery Act relevant geography, eliminating guesswork from reporting.

And rather than listing abstract security procedures, you can show them in action. Visual documentation of timely warning systems and emergency notification tests demonstrates commitment beyond checkbox compliance.

The Clery Act also requires describing prevention programs. Video analytics can reveal where these programs make impact, showing how education transforms high-risk areas into safer spaces.

Using video to show not just what crimes have happened and what efforts you have made to prevent them, but also how effective those methods have been can make your annual security report a show of strength, instead of just an act of compliance.  

No two campuses are the same. Some are large, sprawling city-like areas with their own police force. Others are smaller, single-site locations perhaps with a modest security team. So, complying with the Clery Act will present different challenges at different educational institutions. And that means you’re going to have to fine-tune your security system to meet your own specific needs.

Where XProtect comes into its own is in its open platform. It works with more security devices than any other VMS, so you can likely use the equipment you already have. Let’s take access control as an example. Whereas some VMS vendors will lock you into their proprietary access control product, with Milestone you can choose from hundreds.  

As Cory Compton, the Director of Public Safety at Black Hills State University (BHSU) puts it: 
 
”With an open platform, there are almost no technological barriers to whatever new cameras or analytics emerge in coming years.” 

And because we’ve been around for a long time (more than 25 years and counting), we get the technology integrations others don’t get. This flexibility to choose means you can get exactly the right solution for your unique campus. And the one that favors your staff and students.  

What XProtect variant would be the best fit for a university campus? That depends on your requirements. Incident Manager is included in XProtect Corporate, but you can also use Professional+ (the most popular variant among our education customers) and purchase Incident Manager as an extension.  

Professional+ is a cost-effective way to ensure you can connect an unlimited number of devices and sites and access key features like Smart Map, which gives real-time visualizations of your installation, with icons displaying the exact location of your devices, statuses and fields of view.

We also work with many partners who are focused on education and Clery Act compliance. You can find your local Milestone Reseller here.

In summary, Milestone’s video security software enhances a university’s ability to detect, investigate, and report criminal activity, ensuring compliance with the reporting and safety requirements mandated by the Clery Act.

To discover more benefits of Milestone software, check out our infographic which displays some of the ways it can help provide a safe and positive environment for students, staff and campus visitors. 

And if you want a more detailed explanation about how Milestone can help meet your Clery Act obligations, you can schedule a demo with our security experts. They can walk you through the product features, extensions and integrations from Technology Partners which can meet your unique challenges on your campus.