Writing on Independent Review’s blog, Wake Forest University economics professor Robert Whaples recounts how he was dragooned into pointless “training” under the federal Clery Act. Whaples says, “The intent of the law seems laudable, but like so many other laws its implementation has taken on a life of its own — hungrily gobbling up resources in the process.”
I doubt that there is any benefit from the Clery Act’s mandated disclosures about crime. Students and parents (even if they bother with the reports, which few do) don’t want to know about crime in the aggregate at various schools. Instead, once they have chosen the best school, they’re interested in knowing how to best avoid the possibility of danger at that campus.