An e-mail sent yesterday by the UAPD to all UA students and employees contained a link to an inaccurate 2003 Campus Safety and Security Report.

Although the e-mail was sent to announce that the report would be released today, UA students and employees were able to access the online report with inaccurate statistics yesterday.

Sgt. Eugene Mejia, spokesman for the UAPD, said yesterday afternoon that the numbers needed to be revised because a computer glitch combined UAPD and Tucson Police Department statistics.

Late last night, Sharon Kha, UA spokeswoman, said the numbers had been corrected by the police department.

But when the Wildcat went to press, only some of the numbers had been changed from the original report, and other numbers from the TPD were removed from the report.

In addition, numbers that Mejia had said stood out to UAPD representatives as being too high had not been changed last night.

Mejia pointed to a statistic in the original report, which showed that there were over 200 more bike thefts in 2002 than 2001.

The Wildcat was unable to contact Mejia last night to confirm the accuracy of those numbers that had not been changed.

In an interview yesterday afternoon, Mejia said initial inaccuracies in the report were caused by the computer-assisted dispatch system used by the TPD. The system was combining both departments' numbers, rather than distinguishing the cases by department.

"We have different case numbers that keep us separate," Mejia said. "We're going to try to utilize the system that only picks up our numbers."

Mejia said TPD representatives called yesterday after the e-mails had been sent out, concerned that the crime statistics seemed high. When the UAPD took a closer look at the information, they realized that the numbers had been combined in parts of the report.

The UAPD released the report because it is required by the Department of Education to provide an annual report with statistics from the past year.

"By Oct. 1 of each year, a school that is Title IV eligible is required to publish and distribute an annual campus security report to all current students and employees," the Department of Education's Web site says.

Mejia said, despite the problem with the statistics, it is still important for all students and faculty to review the crime prevention and safety information on the Web site.

The report can be accessed at www.uapd.arizona.edu.