Photo Courtesy of Southwestern College
By Christian Arce
When Campus Police Chief Marco Bareno issued the 2025 Annual Security Report few people seemed to notice. It was a fairly routine summary that indicated Southwestern College had few serious crimes to report and was a safe campus.
What is unique is that the report was issued at all. Southwestern College law enforcement officials – prior to the arrival of Bareno – had repeatedly failed to compile the federally mandated report or issued reports that failed to report violent crimes and sexual assaults.
Under the federal Jeannie Clery Act publicly funded colleges and universities are required to issue transparent, honest summaries of criminal activity on their campuses. Signed in 1990 by President George H. W. Bush, the legislation was named for Jeannie Clery, a 19-year-old Lehigh University student who was raped and murdered on her campus in 1986. Her parents won a seminal lawsuit against the university for not truthfully reporting criminal activity on the campus.
Southwestern College crime reports from 2014 until the hiring of Bareno in September 2023 were either incomplete or intentionally misleading, according to student testimony and corroborating documents from the time. In 2015-17 students who reported sexual assault and rape to SWC and Chula Vista Police said their cases were not included in the Southwestern College annual reports. Some years no reports were filed at all.
Bareno pledged to keep accurate records and make the annual report in a transparent manner. He said a team of eight officers collaborate with local law enforcement agencies, resource centers and student reports to ensure that the annual report is complete and gives an honest picture of the campus safety situation. Students do not have to report alleged crimes directly to campus police, Bareno said, and may instead report to faculty, Title IX officials and professionals in the Student Affairs Office.
“Sometimes it is harder for a victim to report something to police directly because they are unsure whether they want to or they don’t want to get (someone else) in trouble,” Bareno said. “So I think that’s when the Title IX Office and Student Affairs Office becomes counseling. Those offices are a huge help because a lot of the time those reports come straight from them to us.”
Bareno encouraged students who feel unsafe or vulnerable to speak to campus police. He said he knows that is not always easy.
“It’s important that we understand the challenges victims may endure to report something,” he said. “(The college) should offer enough channels of communication to make it accessible to report (crimes).”
