SALT LAKE CITY ― Utah’s Department of Public Safety has launched an investigation into whether Brigham Young University’s police department is appropriately sharing sexual assault case information.
BYU’s police department asked for the investigation so that an external party could examine whether it is correctly sharing these reports with other departments in the school and county, said Marissa Villasenor, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety.
The fact-finding investigation was initiated on Tuesday and follows the barrage of recent complaints over the school’s practice of opening honor code investigations into students after they report being sexually assaulted.
All BYU students must agree to abide by the honor code and violators can be expelled or otherwise punished. The code, which was created by students in 1949, prohibits such things as “sexual misconduct,” or “obscene or indecent conduct or expressions.” As it is currently written, reporting students could also be investigated for how much sexual contact they consented to before the assault.
The broad investigation stems in part from such recent incidents as the handling of information related to Madi Barney’s sexual assault case, Villasenor said. The BYU student said she was sexually assaulted and then told that she is being investigated by the honor code after a copy of her confidential police report was handed over to her school.
The Associated Press doesn’t normally identify possible victims of sex crimes, but Barney has said she wants her name to be used so she can help change the policy.
“This invitation is part of BYU’s broader efforts to study and improve the university’s sexual assault reporting process,” BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said in an email.
