Telephone Harassment
The Campus Public Safety Office wants you to know that using the telephone to make obscene, threatening, or harassing calls to another person is against the law.
The law (ORS 166.090) addresses the crime of telephone harassment. Telephone harassment occurs when the caller intentionally harasses or annoys another person by ringing the person's telephone while having no communicative purpose or, after having been told not to do so, continues to call the receiving telephone.
In other words, the first call may not always constitute telephone harassment. Subsequent calls are telephone harassment if the caller has been forbidden to make the calls. All calls of an inappropriate nature should be reported immediately.
Threatening phone calls are addressed under a different statute (ORS 166.065). In this case you do not have to receive further phone calls before you can report it as a crime to the Campus Public Safety Office.
Definitions:
- Obscene: such calls can be considered harassing phone calls under the telephone harassment statute.
- Harassing: hang-up calls or annoyance calls.
- Threatening: Involve threats of bodily harm, kidnapping, property damage, etc.
What to Do:
- Always attempt to inform the caller he/she is not to call you again
- If no one answers you after you have said hello twice, or if the caller says something inappropriate, tell the caller he/she is not to call again, then hang up.
- Never give any information unless you are absolutely certain you know to whom you are speaking.
- If you are alone, do not reveal that fact to the caller.
- Instruct any children to never give any information to strangers over the phone.
For all complaints of inappropriate telephone use or telephone harassment here on campus or at on-campus housing, we request the complainant contact us for action.
Complainants will be afforded the following options:
- Immediate change in service number
- Assist in an investigative effort