Disclaimer & Responsible Use
PlainCampus makes public Clery Act campus safety data easier to read and compare. It is not safety, security, legal, or enrollment advice, and it does not establish how safe any campus actually is. Use it as a starting point for your own research.
PlainCampus is a free informational resource that makes the Department of Education's public Clery Act crime and fire-safety disclosures easier to read. It is not safety, security, legal, or enrollment advice, and it does not allege that any campus is dangerous. Use the site as one input for your own research and campus visits — not as the final word on any school's safety.
Informational only, not professional advice
Nothing on PlainCampus constitutes safety, security, legal, or enrollment advice, and using the site does not create any professional relationship. Decisions about where to enroll or live involve far more than reported crime counts. For an authoritative and current safety picture, contact the institution's campus security or police department directly and read its full Annual Security Report, which colleges are required to provide. For the authoritative data record, rely on the Department of Education's Campus Safety and Security tool.
What the numbers are, and are not
The figures on PlainCampus are incidents reported under the Clery Act within defined campus geography, for a given reporting year — not a measure of how safe or dangerous a campus truly is. Three things matter when you read them:
- More reports can mean better reporting, not more danger. A campus with a strong reporting culture, active Title IX office, and engaged campus police may record more incidents than a comparable campus where crimes go unreported. A higher count is not automatically a worse campus — our Clery Act guide explains this paradox in full.
- The Clery Act covers campus geography, not all crime. Reportable incidents are those on campus, on adjacent public property, and in certain non-campus buildings the school controls. Crime students experience elsewhere in a city is outside this data, so a low campus count does not describe the surrounding area — see our campus vs. city crime guide.
- The safety score is a comparison metric, not a danger rating. We divide reported on-campus incidents by enrollment per 1,000 students so campuses of different sizes can be compared fairly. It is a relative figure for context, not a verdict on any individual's risk.
Data freshness and accuracy
Clery Act statistics are published annually by the Department of Education and carry a one-to-two-year lag by design; figures reflect the most recent reporting year we have loaded, shown on each page. We work to keep the data accurate and aligned with the official source, but we cannot guarantee it is complete, current, or free of upstream reporting limitations. If you spot a figure that looks wrong, please report it through our corrections process.
No allegation about any campus
Appearing on PlainCampus, or ranking in any position, is not a claim that a campus is unsafe. Colleges report Clery Act statistics precisely because federal law requires transparency so prospective students and families can see the data. Nothing here should be read as asserting that any listed institution is dangerous or has acted improperly.
No affiliation
PlainCampus is an independent publisher. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the U.S. Department of Education, any college or university, or any government agency. Outbound links to official sources are provided for verification and do not imply any partnership.
Questions
Questions about how to use this data, or about a specific figure, are welcome through our contact page. See also our editorial & corrections policy and methodology.