Safety Video from President Blake

Message from our Chief Operating Officer

Message from Chief of Police

People unknowingly engage in activities every day that make them more vulnerable to crime. Make yourself less of a potential target by incorporating some simple actions.

• Travel on well-lit, busy streets and avoid walking through alleys.
• Always trust your intuition and pay attention to warning signs, such as people watching you or quickly approaching.
• Maintain complete awareness of your surroundings. Do not become distracted by using your cell phone or listening to your headset while walking.
• Do not walk alone, especially at night.
• Only take what you absolutely need with you when going out. Avoid carrying large amounts of cash or multiple credit cards. Use backpacks to conceal laptop computers.
• Remain confident, alert and in control. Avoid going out or walking home while intoxicated.

The Safety Escort Program offers mobile transport to campus and near off-campus locations during evening hours. Safety Escorts operate during the school year from 7 p.m. until 11 p.m. when school is in session.

To request a Safety Escort:

• Call 404-413-2100 from any campus or near off-campus location.
• Call 3-2100 from any campus phone.
• Flag down a Georgia State Safety Escort van or Georgia State police officer.

• Use machines in busy areas that are well lit.
• Pay attention to those behind you and around you before making a transaction.
• Be private about your personal identification number.
• Never write your personal identification number on your card.
• Remove your card from the machine when your transaction is complete.
• Pressing 911 into the machine does NOT alert authorities to an emergency.

Knowing how to respond to a potentially dangerous situation is just as important as knowing how to avoid one. Often, criminals catch victims off guard, allowing victims very little time to react. Thinking ahead about your response to such a situation and having a planned and practiced response will allow you to remain calm and focused.

• Carry a safety whistle or other noise-making device and use it when you feel threatened. Noise attracts the attention of those nearby. Although yelling is often the most effective method of attracting attention, people often lack the ability to speak in crisis situations. Anyone can blow a whistle.

• Self-defense classes are offered by Georgia State during the fall and spring semesters
• The Georgia State Police Department offers Community Outreach Programs to educate students on how to avoid dangerous situations and what to do if one should arise.

When in an uncomfortable situation, always trust your instincts. If necessary, defend yourself to the best of your ability. When presented with an avenue of escape, run to a safe place where people are present to help you. Near campus, safe places include residence halls, restaurants, businesses and the Georgia State Police Department, which is open 24 hours a day.

• In an uncomfortable situation, be assertive.
• Maintain eye contact with those who may attempt to confront you and do not let yourself get distracted.
• Maintain a confident physical demeanor.
• Maintain a physical distance of at least six feet from strangers.

• Do not be afraid to tell someone to get out of your personal space.
• If necessary, yell to attract the attention of those nearby.
• Use direct commands, such as “Get back!” “Leave me alone!” or “Let me go!”

• If someone demands your property, give it to him or her. Do not resist. Maintaining your personal safety is more important than your backpack or cell phone.
• If someone claims to have a weapon, believe him or her and surrender your property.
• Throw your property in one direction and run away in the opposite direction to a safer place.
• While running, attract attention by yelling.
• If your assailant targets you instead of your property, remain calm and breathe. Think of your planned response, defend yourself and escape.

• Fire safety is the resident’s responsibility. Inspect your dorm or apartment and communicate any fire hazards to University Housing staff or your landlord in writing.
• Most fires occur at night when apartments are most heavily populated.
• Smoking is the number one cause of fatal apartment fires. People drop cigarettes on furniture or in wastepaper baskets. Do not allow smoking in your apartment. If you do, provide smokers with large ashtrays and check behind furniture and cushions before going to bed. Do not smoke in bed. Make sure cigarettes, pipes, etc., are extinguished before emptying ashtrays into the garbage.
• Do not leave paper or combustibles by heaters or open flames.
• Do not block exits.
• Explore your dwelling and identify all of the possible exits.
• Keep exit and stairway doors closed at all times.
• Never use an elevator in a fire. Use the stairs.
• Do not overcrowd your dorm or apartment with people or belongings. Your dorm or apartment should not exceed legal capacity.
• Make sure your apartment has safety devices such as smoke detectors and working fire extinguishers.
• Check for electrical hazards, including worn electrical cords, overloaded extension cords and outlets, broken appliances and exposed wiring or outlets.
• Do not run cords under carpets, over doors, over nails or in high-traffic areas.
• Use heavy-duty extension cords.
• Make sure your apartment has smoke detectors outside of every bedroom (and inside if you sleep with the door closed). Change batteries twice a year and when they beep or expire.
• Rooms, hallways, floors, special exits, etc., should be equipped with smoke detectors.
• Follow the manufacturer’s testing and cleaning instructions for smoke detectors. Test them at least once a month.
• Create an evacuation plan with your roommates. Post it in public places so your guests know it, too. Decide upon a meeting place outside.
• Never re-enter a burning building. Let the fire department know if someone is left inside.
• Do not burn trash.
• Do not place space heaters near curtains, furniture or plastics. They should be at least three feet away from other objects.
• Make sure space heaters are turned off and unplugged before leaving the room.
• If a breaker trips or a fuse blows, try to find out why before just flipping the breaker or replacing the fuse.
• If you have a fireplace, make sure it has a screen. Keep rugs, curtains and fire starters away from the flame.
• Make sure nothing is stored by your heater or furnace.
• Extinguish candles and incense before you leave the room.
• Do not leave the stove or oven on and unattended.

Yes. Faculty members may provide information such as the following:

The Campus Carry legislation allows anyone properly licensed in the state of Georgia to carry a handgun in a concealed manner on university property with noted exceptions. Information about the law can be found on this page. It is the responsibility of the license holder to know the law. Failure to do so may result in a misdemeanor charge and may violate the Georgia State Student Code of Conduct.”

No. Students, faculty and staff should not attempt to monitor or enforce compliance with the statutes by those who do carry handguns. Guns may only be excluded from classrooms when they are being used for classes in which high school students are enrolled.

No. In accordance with the University System guidelines, Georgia State will not be erecting signs outside restricted areas.

No. In accordance with University System guidelines, Georgia State will not provide gun storage facilities.

Call university police at (404) 413-3333. Students, faculty and staff should not attempt to monitor or enforce compliance with the statute.

• Murder/Non-negligent Manslaughter
• Negligent Manslaughter
• Sexual Assault
• Rape
• Forcible Fondling
• Incest
• Statutory Rape
• Robbery
• Aggravated Assault
• Domestic Violence
• Stalking
• Burglary
• Motor Vehicle Theft
• Arson
• Destruction of Property/Vandalism (only if hate crime)
• Intimidation (only if hate crime)
• Larceny/Theft (only if hate crime)
• Simple Assault (only if hate crime)

All institutions of postsecondary education, both public and private, that participate in federal student aid programs (via Title IV) must comply with the Clery Act.

• Confidentiality is limited to that provided by law. Because police reports are public records under state law, GSUPD cannot hold reports of crime in confidence. Confidential reports, for purposes of inclusion in the annual disclosure of crime statistics, can be made to Campus Security Authorities (as identified above) — excluding sworn members of the GSUPD. Accurate and prompt reporting will facilitate timely initiation of warnings and other appropriate emergency response procedures, and will also help ensure the accuracy of crime statistics compiled in compliance with the Clery Act.
• Persons Exempt from Reporting Clery Reportable Crimes Pastoral counselors and professional counselors, as defined below, when acting as such, are not considered to be Campus Security Authorities and are not required to report crimes. The University encourages them, if and when they deem it appropriate, to inform persons being counseled of the procedures to report crimes on a voluntary basis for inclusion in the annual crime statistics. A pastoral counselor is an employee of the University who is associated with a religious order or denomination, who is recognized by that religious order or denomination as someone who provides confidential counseling, and who is functioning within the scope of that recognition as a pastoral counselor. A professional counselor is an employee of the University whose official responsibilities include providing psychological counseling and who is functioning within the scope of his or her license or certification.
• Effective July 1, 2012, Georgia state law requires all University employees and volunteers who, in the course of their duties, suspect that a child has been abused on or off campus to report that abuse immediately to the GSUPD in person or by phone at 404.413.3333. Employees and volunteers must also report suspected child abuse to their supervisor, program director, or a Georgia State official as soon as possible. For more information, see the Georgia Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Policy.

• The Georgia State University has a Georgia State Emergency Notification System (Panther Alert), which is activated during emergencies to provide the campus and the community with a prompt notification of a confirmed situation and to provide instructions for taking action if needed.
• Emergency Notification: The University will immediately notify the campus community after confirming that a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students, faculty, staff or visitors is occurring on the campus. In those instances, the Institute will, without delay, and taking into account the safety of the community, determine the content of the notification and activate the notification system.
  • However, if in the professional judgment of responsible authorities, issuing an emergency notification would compromise efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to or otherwise mitigate the emergency, the notification may be delayed. In those cases, the University’s Chief of Police, or the ranking Police Department officer in charge during his/her absence, will be notified, and once the potentially compromising situation has been addressed the emergency notification will be issued immediately.
• Timely Warning: The University will notify the campus community of any Clery Act crime as soon as the information is available to enable people to protect themselves and/or their property from similar crimes only under the following conditions as determined by the Police Department:
  • There is a serious or continuing threat to the campus community AND
  • Issuing the timely warning will not compromise law enforcement efforts to address the crime.
  • All available information, both public and confidential, will be taken into consideration when determining if a serious or continuing threat exists. Those considerations include, but are not limited to, the relationship between victims and perpetrators, whether an arrest has been made that mitigates the threat and the amount of time that has passed between the commission of the crime and Police being notified of the crime. Although each case will be evaluated on an individual basis, in general a report that is filed more than five days after the date of the alleged incident may not allow Police to post a “timely” warning.
  • If, in the professional judgment of the Police Department, issuing a timely warning notification would compromise efforts to address the crime, the notification may be delayed or information may be limited. In those cases the University’s Chief of Police, or the highest-ranking officer in charge, will be notified. Once the potentially compromising situation has been addressed, the timely warning notification will be issued immediately if the serious or continuing threat still exists.
  • The Georgia State University Police Department may not necessarily issue timely warnings for every Clery Act criminal incident that is reported since that specific incident may not pose a continuing threat to the community. Individuals should exercise due care and caution to avoid being victimized. Check out the crime prevention tips posted by the Georgia State University Police Department to deter these crimes or attend one of our crime prevention informational sessions. For more information on our crime prevention programs, click here.

Yes. All university officials with significant responsibility for campus and student activities are considered to be Campus Security Authorities (CSAs) and have reporting obligations under the Clery Act. That is, they are required to report all crimes or incidents to the Police Department for data gathering purposes. These individuals have been notified of this responsibility and specialized training has been created to assist them in understanding their role. The following list denotes the positions at Georgia State thought to meet the definition of a CSA. This list is intended to be comprehensive, but certain positions may not be specifically listed.

• All sworn member of the GSUPD.
• All academic deans, associate deans and assistant deans.
• All deans and directors, associate deans and directors, and assistant deans and directors in the following units of the organizational area of the Division of Student Life: The Office of the Vice President of Student Life and the Office of the Dean of Students.
• The director of Title IX Compliance of the organizational area of Legal Affairs and Risk Management.

Examples of individuals who DO NOT meet the criteria for being a CSA include a faculty member who does not have any responsibility for student and campus activity beyond the classroom, clerical staff, custodians and maintenance personnel, and dining facility staff. A pastoral or professional counselor on campus does not have significant responsibility for student and campus activity and are exempt from reporting crimes to the police.

Not necessarily. Although we strongly encourage victims of any crime to seek assistance from law enforcement whenever possible, a report from a CSA will not necessarily result in a police investigation. There are many reasons why a report might not result in a law enforcement action. For example, in many cases the Police Department cannot initiate an investigation without victim assistance. As another example, if a report is about an incident that occurred outside of the Georgia State University Police Department’s jurisdiction, the matter would be referred the matter to the authority having jurisdiction.

A hate crime is defined as any crime that manifests evidence that a victim was selected because of his/her actual or perceived race; gender; gender identity; religion; sexual ori­entation; ethnicity; national origin or disability.  A hate crime is not a separate, distinct crime, but is the commission of a criminal offense which was motivated by the offender’s bias.  If the facts of the case indicate that the offender was motivated to commit the offense because of his/her bias against the victim’s perceived race; gender; gender identity; religion; sexual ori­entation; ethnicity; national origin or disability, the crime is classified as a hate crime. For more information on the definition and classification of hate/bias crimes, see the FBI’s Data Collection Manual.

The Clery Act requires that schools provide statistics for the following categories of arrests or, if an arrest was not made, referrals for campus disciplinary action:

• Liquor Law Violations
• Drug Law Violations
• Illegal Weapons Possession

The Clery Act requires that, if a person is both arrested and referred for disciplinary action for the same violation, only the arrest should be reported. Citations, criminal summonses, and notices to appear are also considered to be “arrests.” According to federal offense definitions, neither driving under the influence nor drunkenness is considered a “liquor law violation.”

• On Campus: (I) any building or property owned or controlled by an institution of higher education within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution and used by the institution in direct support of, or in a manner related to, the institution’s educational purposes, including residence halls; and (II) property within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution that is owned by the institution but controlled by another person, is used by students, and supports institution purposes.
  • On campus includes (1) all property of the Georgia Tech, and other campus buildings); (2) all Institute owned or controlled property reasonably contiguous to central campus that is used in direct support of, or related to, its educational purposes. The Clery Act requires crime statistics for residence halls to be included in the “on campus” statistics. Because of this, statistics for housing are reported as a sub-set of the “On Campus” crimes.
• Non-campus building or property: (I) any building or property owned or controlled by a student organization recognized by the institution; and (II) any building or property owned or controlled by an institution of higher education that is used in direct support of, or in relation to, the institution’s educational purposes, is used by students, and is not within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution.
• Public property: all public property that is within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution, such as a sidewalk, a street, other thoroughfare, or parking facility, and is adjacent to a facility owned or controlled by the institution if the facility is used by the institution in direct support of, or in a manner related to the institution’s educational purposes.
• The crime statistics in this report for public property include the Georgia State University Police Department, Atlanta Police Department’s, Alpharetta Police Department’s, Dunwoody Police Department’s, DeKalb County Police Department’s and Newton County Sherriff’s statistics for public property on the campuses as well as public property surrounding the campuses. In addition to statistics on crimes occurring in the listed locations above, the statute also requires statistics on arrests for liquor law violations, drug-related violations, and weapons possession. It also requires statistics on persons referred for campus disciplinary action for liquor law violations, drug-related violations, and weapons possession.

No. Crimes are counted when they are reported regardless of prosecution.

The United States Department of Education is tasked with enforcing the Jeanne Clery Act and may level civil penalties against institutions of higher education up to $35,000.00 per violation or may suspend them from participating in federal student financial aid programs.

Criminal Incidents	2020	2021	2022
Homicide	0	0	*2
Rape	3	7	9
Fondling	2	9	9
Incest	0	0	0
Statutory Rape	0	0	0
Robbery	3	11	4
Aggravated Assault	6	18	6
Burglary	2	5	2
Motor Vehicle Thefts	7	9	6
Arson	1	0	1

Offense	2020	2021	2022
Domestic Violence	0	0	0
Dating Violence	14	7	8
Stalking	7	2	17

Criminal Incidents	2020	2021	2022
Homicide	0	0	0
Rape	0	0	0
Fondling	0	0	0
Incest	0	0	0
Statutory Rape	0	0	0
Robbery	0	0	0
Aggravated Assault	0	0	0
Burglary	0	0	0
Motor Vehicle Thefts	0	0	0
Arson	0	0	0

Offense	2020	2021	2022
Domestic Violence	0	0	0
Dating Violence	0	0	0
Stalking	0	0	1

Criminal Incidents	2020	2021	2022
Homicide	0	0	0
Rape	0	0	0
Fondling	0	0	2
Incest	0	0	0
Statutory Rape	0	0	0
Robbery	0	0	0
Aggravated Assault	0	0	0
Burglary	0	1	1
Motor Vehicle Thefts	0	0	0
Arson	2	2	0

Offense	2020	2021	2022
Domestic Violence	0	0	0
Dating Violence	0	0	0
Stalking	0	1	2

Criminal Incidents	2020	2021	2022
Homicide	0	0	0
Rape	0	0	0
Fondling	1	0	0
Incest	0	0	0
Statutory Rape	0	0	0
Robbery	0	0	0
Aggravated Assault	1	0	0
Burglary	0	0	0
Motor Vehicle Thefts	1	0	1
Arson	0	0	0

Offense	2020	2021	2022
Domestic Violence	0	0	0
Dating Violence	0	0	0
Stalking	0	0	0

Criminal Incidents	2020	2021	2022
Homicide	0	0	0
Rape	0	0	0
Fondling	0	1	0
Incest	0	0	0
Statutory Rape	0	0	0
Robbery	0	0	0
Aggravated Assault	0	0	0
Burglary	0	0	1
Motor Vehicle Thefts	0	0	0
Arson	0	0	0

Offense	2020	2021	2022
Domestic Violence	0	0	0
Dating Violence	0	0	0
Stalking	0	0	1

Criminal Incidents	2020	2021	2022
Homicide	0	0	0
Rape	0	0	0
Fondling	1	0	0
Incest	0	0	0
Statutory Rape	0	0	0
Robbery	0	0	0
Aggravated Assault	0	0	0
Burglary	0	0	1
Motor Vehicle Thefts	0	0	0
Arson	0	0	0

Offense	2020	2021	2022
Domestic Violence	0	0	0
Dating Violence	0	0	0
Stalking	0	0	2

• Internal Affairs 2023 Annual Report
• Internal Affairs 2022 Annual Report
• Internal Affairs 2021 Annual Report
• Internal Affairs 2020 Annual Report
• Internal Affairs 2019 Annual Report
• Internal Affairs 2018 Annual Report 
• Internal Affairs 2017 Annual Report
• Internal Affairs 2016 Annual Report
• Internal Affairs 2015 Annual Report
• Internal Affairs 2014 Annual Report
• Internal Affairs 2013 Annual Report

These statistics are presented for the use of students, faculty, staff and prospective students under the requirements of the Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act (Public Law 101-542) of 1990. Your Georgia State Police Department is proud to report the annual crime statistics as a record reflective of our successes in supporting the community. We are also proud of the fact that we have been reporting these statistics voluntarily for many years prior to the requirements set forth in the Campus Security Act of 1990.

If you need more information on statistics, e-mail Chris Strozier or call (404) 413-3207, Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.

The Georgia State Police Records unit is responsible for maintenance of all incident reports which occur within the Georgia State jurisdiction. The records clerk is also responsible for monthly and annual statistical reports for crime on the Georgia State campus and to distribute and release Incident/Accident reports upon request and maintain a record of released reports.

One may obtain a copy of an incident/accident report by coming in person to the Georgia State Police Department on any of the Georgia State campuses between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday – Friday. Allow 3-4 business days for processing of reports.

Fulton County Jail (inmate information)	(404)613-2000
Fulton County Solicitor’s Office	(404)612-4800
Magistrate Court	(404)612-5045
Warrant Office	(404)612-4752
Victim Assistance	(404)612-6883
Fulton County District Attorney’s Office	(404)612-4980
Victim Assistance	(404)612-4986
Governor’s Victim Assistance Help Line	(800)338-6745
Criminal Justice Coordinating Council
Victim Compensation	(404)559-4949
TDD	(404)559-4177

• Community Outreach
• Counseling Center
• Dean of Students
• FASA