Employees failing to report arrests to University
July 24, 2009 by CHELSEA COOK
Filed under News
On Jan. 1, 2008, the University implemented a new employee arrest policy, requiring all faculty and staff to self-report any arrests within 72 hours and convictions within 24 hours to the Office of Legal Affairs.
But an investigation by The Red & Black revealed employees arrested in Athens-Clarke County report their arrests to the University only 50 percent of the time, even though arrest logs of these employees reside a simple Web site visit away.
“I’d say there is a greater chance it will come to the administration’s attention if it happens in Athens-Clarke [County], because it gets reported in the newspaper, or even word-of-mouth,” said Tom Jackson, vice president of public affairs.
Unfortunately, that’s not been the case. The Red & Black discovered six out of 12 employee arrests in the last year went unnoticed and unreported to the OLA. In one case, the employee was arrested by the University Police Department.
“We post everything on [the online arrest log], it’s available to anyone,” said Major Eric Gattiker of the University Police Department. Gattiker said that when UGA police post its daily log (where it states if the individual is a student or employee), it does not notify the University if an employee was arrested.
The unreported offenses – including DUIs, shoplifting and battery – gather added importance in light of recent events. The Red & Black reported earlier this month William Ora Mullen, a University employee working as a computer specialist with access to student Social Security numbers, continued to work in the Registrar’s Office for almost a year despite facing a felony theft by deception charge that resulted in a 10-year prison term. Mullen was arrested in Habersham County, where information was not as easily accessible.
An e-mail was sent out on July 21 to all University employees, including student employees, reminding them of their duty to report any arrests and convictions. The reminder warned employees of the repercussions of not reporting. “Failure to report is a violation of the policy and may lead to negative employment action above and beyond whatever action might be taken because of the arrest itself,” the e-mail stated.
Last fall, the University attempted to implement a policy requiring all students who are arrested to report the offense within 72 hours. The University Cabinet approved the code, which would require students to report arrests, criminal convictions and other disciplinary action to the Office of Judicial Programs, but the measure was tabled by University President
Michael Adams in order to get more student input.
But for students arrested in Athens-Clarke County, a policy is already in place. Beginning in 2006, ACC police started sending a weekly list of all 17-to-24-year-olds arrested in the county to University Police, who take the list and compare it with a list of enrolled students. If there is a match, they forward all information to the OJP.
There is no policy, nor process of running ACC or UGA arrest records, against an employee database.
“They are two separate classes, here,” Jackson said. “Students are not employees and employees are not students. They are different classes of relationships to the University.”
Student Government Association Vice President Cameron Secord agreed with Jackson.
“We come to get an education, [employees] are here to help us get it,” he said. “I think the administration has a good angle recognizing that fundamental difference, and working through a process with the Office of Judicial Programs [for students] and faculty and staff working with the OLA.”
But if honesty is the best policy, why isn’t it working?
Jackson doesn’t think it has anything to do with fear of repercussions.
“I think what is happening is, employees generally aren’t aware of the requirement, or they’re thinking what they have done does not fall under the requirement,” he said. “For example, DUIs. We’ve had some people actually ask, ‘Is DUI under this policy?’ Yes it is.”
Secord mentioned the employee-arrest policy is not the only one that is flawed and sees arrests go undocumented.
“[Student arrest] cases are only copied when they know that those involved are students, like if they find student IDs in their wallets or if it comes up in conversation, or if they’re in between the ages of 18-24, then ACC copies everybody in that age bracket, the University runs the report, and finds matches,” he explained. “There are some students who fall through the cracks, if you will. It’s not as if everyone is automatically ‘gotten’ if you will, but most of them, just because they fall in that age bracket the end up having their name matched up when it ran against enrolled students at the University.”
While Secord explained that it is natural for any policy to have flaws, he agreed honesty and fairness were the best ways to handle documenting any arrest.
Jackson was astute in discussing the importance of employees and students documenting their arrests, but admitted the effectiveness of both policies had been discussed in the past.
“I think it’s under constant evaluation of how well it’s working,” he said.
