Crime

Kamala D. Harris, Janet Napolitano Take Steps to Address Campus Sexual Assault

Published

11 years ago

May 19, 2015

Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has announced steps to address the pervasive issue of campus sexual assault on California’s college campuses.

Joined by University of California President Janet Napolitano, law enforcement leaders and victim advocates, Attorney General Harris released a Model Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), comprised of a How-To Guide and Template MOU for law enforcement agencies and institutions of higher learning to improve their coordination, collaboration and transparency in response to cases of campus sexual assault.

<p>“California has some of the best colleges and universities in the world,” said Attorney General Harris. “But for far too many hard-working students, the dream of an education from a top school is upended by sexual violence. We must acknowledge these students’ value to our future and give them the respect and dignity they deserve as our next leaders.”

Studies suggest that as many as one in five undergraduate students have been a victim of an attempted or completed sexual assault. In addition, this crime is severely underreported, with 80 percent of campus sexual assaults going unreported to law enforcement.

UC President Janet Napolitano

“A primary goal in our efforts at the University of California to prevent and respond to sexual violence and sexual assault has been to make sure law enforcement agencies are more fully engaged with us on this serious issue,” said UC President Janet Napolitano.

California is entering a new era of accountability for campus sexual assault. For the first time under California law, campuses across the state are required to immediately alert law enforcement when a sexual assault occurs.

By July 1, California campuses must have policies in place to ensure that reports of violent crime, hate crime, or sexual assault made to campus authorities are immediately disclosed to law enforcement.

The Model MOU will help campuses and law enforcement agencies comply with their new obligations, increase reporting, and improve their response to campus sexual assault to seek justice for victims and accountability for perpetrators.

Specifically, the Model MOU lays out key action items that include:

Clarifying the duties of campus authorities and law enforcement agencies following an assault, including who will act as first responder, who will collect and preserve evidence, and how to share necessary information while preserving victim privacy
Ensuring that campuses, law enforcement, and community-based organizations work together to connect victims to services – including rape kits – as soon as possible
Committing to regular training for both the campus and law enforcement communities

Attorney General Harris has a decades-long commitment to reducing sexual violence, holding perpetrators accountable and seeking justice for sexual assault victims. As a line prosecutor in Alameda County and then as the District Attorney of San Francisco, the Attorney General has long focused on violence against women and children.

In her first year in office, the Attorney General eliminated a longstanding backlog of untested rape kits in state-run labs – which included 1,300 DNA cases. In April 2014, the California Attorney General’s Rapid DNA Service Team received the United States Department of Justice Award for Professional Innovation in Victim Services.

In January 2015, Attorney General Harris issued an information bulletin to California law enforcement agencies, higher education administrators and campus security personnel, providing enforcement guidance on new and amended sexual assault and campus safety laws. The bulletin summarized SB 967 (Senate pro Tempore Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles) and AB 1433 (Assemblymember Mike Gatto, D-Glendale), gave enforcement guidance in the context of existing state and federal statutes, and encouraged increased collaboration between law enforcement and campus authorities. At the time she released the bulletin, Attorney General Harris promised to release further guidance in the coming months, including this model agreement.

To view the Model MOU, go to https://oag.ca.gov/campus-sexual-assault.

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Oakland Post: Week of December 24 – 30, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – December 24 – 30, 2025

Published

3 days ago

December 25, 2025

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Alameda County

Oakland Council Expands Citywide Security Cameras Despite Major Opposition

In a 7-1 vote in favor of the contract, with only District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife voting no, the Council agreed to maintain its existing network of 291 cameras and add 40 new “pan-tilt-zoom cameras.”

Published

1 week ago

December 21, 2025

Oakland Post

At the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference, Flock Safety introduces new public safety technology – Amplified Intelligence, a suite of AI-powered tools designed to improve law enforcement investigations. Courtesy photo.

By Post Staff

The Oakland City Council this week approved a $2.25 million contract with Flock Safety for a mass surveillance network of hundreds of security cameras to track vehicles in the city.

In recent weeks hundreds of local residents have spoken against the camera system, raising concerns that data will be shared with immigration authorities and other federal agencies at a time when mass surveillance is growing across the country with little regard for individual rights.

The Flock network, supported by the Oakland Police Department, has the backing of residents and councilmembers who see it as an important tool to protect public safety.

“This system makes the Department more efficient as it allows for information related to disruptive/violent criminal activities to be captured … and allows for precise and focused enforcement,” OPD wrote in its proposal to City Council.

According to OPD, police made 232 arrests using data from Flock cameras between July 2024 and November of this year.

Based on the data, police say they recovered 68 guns, and utilizing the countywide system, they have found 1,100 stolen vehicles.

However, Flock’s cameras cast a wide net. The company’s cameras in Oakland last month captured license plate numbers and other information from about 1.4 million vehicles.

Speaking at Tuesday’s Council meeting, Fife was critical of her colleagues for signing a contract with a company that has been in the national spotlight for sharing data with federal agencies.

Flock’s cameras – which are automated license plate readers – have been used in tracking people who have had abortions, monitoring protesters, and aiding in deportation roundups.

“I don’t know how we get up and have several press conferences talking about how we are supportive of a sanctuary city status but then use a vendor that has been shown to have a direct relationship with (the U.S.) Border Control,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Several councilmembers who voted in favor of the contract said they supported the deal as long as some safeguards were written into the Council’s resolution.

“We’re not aiming for perfection,” said District 1 Councilmember Zac Unger. “This is not Orwellian facial recognition technology — that’s prohibited in Oakland. The road forward here is to add as many amendments as we can.”

Amendments passed by the Council prohibit OPD from sharing camera data with any other agencies for the purpose of “criminalizing reproductive or gender affirming healthcare” or for federal immigration enforcement. California state law also prohibits the sharing of license plate reader data with the federal government, and because Oakland’s sanctuary city status, OPD is not allowed to cooperate with immigration authorities.

A former member of Oakland’s Privacy Advisory Commission has sued OPD, alleging that it has violated its own rules around data sharing.

So far, OPD has shared Flock data with 50 other law enforcement agencies.