Dive Brief:
- A student journalist from Ohio successfully argued that her private college’s police department should be covered by open records law.
- The Associated Press reports that the state Supreme Court decided 4-3 that the Otterbein University police department was a public office because its officers were state-certified.
- Dissenters said the agency was not public because it was created by a private entity rather than a governmental one and criticized the majority for equating private departments with those established by law, according to the article.
Dive Insight:
This Ohio case could reach beyond that state to private universities, or private institutions more generally, elsewhere. Student journalists working on investigative pieces at private colleges and universities often run up against a wall when trying to get institutional data or information. Additionally, federal law requires educational bodies keep student information private. By requesting arrest or complaint records from the campus police department, which also deals with students, enterprising journalists may be able to get information from the police they wouldn’t otherwise have had access to.