Since June, the prosecutor's office has routinely received cases from campus police. Benedict also approved hiring 13 more police officers. Improvements began almost immediately after the SLED investigation was launched in May, Giese said. Giese said he wanted assurances that Benedict would not revert to a pattern of choosing which cases to report and which to keep in its records. On Oct. 11, the school notified Giese that the school was seeking national accreditation for its police force.
Accreditation requires strict standards for police procedures, including reporting requirements.
Officials from SLED's crime-reporting unit also met with Benedict staffers to improve their procedures. In January, Benedict President David Swinton directed campus police to arrest any suspect when police have evidence of a crime and to refer all violations to the Columbia Police Department for further investigation. However, Giese criticized the college for failing to bring charges against 19 students or former students before Swinton changed the policy. A team of prosecutors searched through evidence campus police gathered in 13 cases. The prosecutors sorted through poor record-keeping to establish a chain of evidence sufficient to make cases, Giese said.