A recent arrest for an alleged on-campus rape has highlighted difficulties the University faces when deciding whether it should notify students of a crime.
A man was arrested Oct. 14 on six charges, including second-degree rape — but the incident was not emailed to the UNC community through Alert Carolina.
No alert was sent because it would have impeded the investigation, it was not deemed an immediate danger and local media was covering the incident extensively, Department of Public Safety spokesman Randy Young said.
“I can’t get into the specifics of how this would impede the investigation,” he said. “It falls to the department’s discretion.”
“If we’re trying to restrict information from the public, we’re trying to restrict information from a suspect.”
The suspect, Jade Rofot, 29, was charged with two counts of second-degree rape, two counts of second-degree sexual offense and two counts of sexual battery, Young said.
Police said the crime occurred in the early morning of Oct. 13 on Manning Drive.
DPS sent warrants out soon after, and Rofot was arrested on the evening of Oct. 14 by Durham police at his place of employment in Durham. He is now being held at Orange County Jail on a $2.5 million bond, Young said.
In September, the University revised its Alert Carolina notification structure to expand to three categories of warning — emergency warning, timely warning and informational message.
Since the system was revised, Alert Carolina has issued three crime-related warnings, all of which were deemed informational.