Content Warning: This timely warning includes descriptions of sexual violence.
In an effort to promote campus safety and provide timely information to our campus community, the following information is being provided so that you can make informed decisions about your safety. We encourage all community members to care for their needs and well-being while reading this message, especially those who have been impacted by similar forms of violence.
CARE provides free and confidential support and advocacy to students, staff, and faculty who have experienced sexual violence, including sexual assault, relationship violence, and stalking. Please call the 24/7 confidential phone line (805) 893-4613 any time to explore your rights, options, and support. CARE website: care.ucsb.edu
Information about UCSB’s policies and support resources for sexual violence can be found at: https://titleix-dhp.ucsb.edu/
Report
This is a Timely Warning regarding a crime that occurred on campus property.
This morning, the UCSB Police Department received a report of a rape and strangulation that occurred in campus housing earlier today, Wednesday August 21, around 1:00 a.m. The suspect and survivor met through the Grindr dating app and are otherwise not known to each other.
UCPD is investigating this crime. If you have information that might assist in the investigation, please contact the UCSB Police Department at (805) 893-3446 or report crime information anonymously at www.police.ucsb.edu/report-crime.
UCPD reminds the campus community of the following safety tips:
Safety Tips
• Perpetrators are responsible for sexual assault. Crime victims are never responsible for the behavior of perpetrators.
• If you start to feel concerns about a person or a situation, trust your instincts and try to remove yourself as quickly as possible from the potential threat.
• When using a dating app, it is important to be mindful and cautious about how these social tools can also be used to perpetrate violence and abuse (for more info about online dating safety: https://rainn.org/articles/tips-safer-online-dating-and-dating-app-use)
• You can always un-match, block, or report your match after meeting up in person which will keep them from being able to access your profile in the future.
• Set up first meetings in public places and let a friend know where you’ll be.
• If you think someone is at risk of assault or abuse, you should consider it an emergency and act to support that person. You can call the police or ask for help from other people, intervene directly if safe, or create a distraction to help remove the potential victim from the situation.
UCPD shares these Safety Tips while recognizing that perpetrators, and not the victims or survivors, are solely responsible for their actions.
The UCSB Police Department’s CSO Safety Escort Program is a free service provided to members of the UCSB community as a safe alternative to walking alone at night. Call (805) 893-2000 to request a CSO escort. For more information: https://www.police.ucsb.edu/cso/cso-safety-escorts.
**UCPD encourages printing and posting of this Timely Warning for further community notification.**
UCSB's prefacing of the timely warning with 'Content Warning: This message includes descriptions of sexual violence' is a survivor-centered editorial choice that is rare in campus Clery notifications -- the university also used this format for at least one other 2024 stalking warning
The alert's explicit statement that the suspect and survivor 'met through Grindr, a popular same-sex dating app' is an unusual level of disclosure in a timely warning -- most alerts omit the dating-app mechanism even when known
The dating-app safety advisory embedded in the timely warning ('It is important to be mindful and cautious about how these social tools can be used to perpetrate violence and abuse') is a harm-reduction addition beyond the Clery statutory minimum
The one-hour gap between the assault (approximately 1:00 AM August 21) and report to police (approximately 2:00 AM August 21) is shorter than average for sexual assault reporting -- UCPD issued the community notification by the following day
No suspect description was available for release, consistent with the all-stranger fact pattern where the victim had no prior contact with the suspect beyond the app interaction