Police at private colleges may be subject to state public records law

Campus police at private colleges and universities might soon be subject to the state’s public records law in response to a N.C. Supreme Court case involving a former Elon University television reporter.

Nick Ochsner pursued legal action after he was denied access to an incident report following a student’s arrest in 2010. The N.C. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the private university’s right to withhold the records, and the N.C. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Feb. 13.

Elon and other private institutions argue they should be exempt from the state’s disclosure law, which requires incident reports to be open to the public.

Amanda Martin, one of Ochsner’s attorneys who has also represented The Daily Tar Heel, said campus police should be subject to the same level of scrutiny regarding public records as city or county police.

“If the government turns over control, the public should not suffer because of that transfer of power,” she said.

Public police forces on private college campuses answer to the state attorney general, said Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center.

“It doesn’t matter that the (campus) police aren’t being paid with state funds,” LoMonte said. “What matters is that they are exercising a central function of government — which is to arrest and put people in jail.”

LoMonte said private institutions’ campus police only release a minimal log containing the nature of the crime, the time and the location.

He said police at public universities must include a summary and a description of a crime.

Randy Young, spokesman for UNC’s Department of Public Safety, said University campus police release incident reports, accident reports and arrest reports to anyone who submits a request to a public resource officer.

LoMonte said recent legislation could make the Elon case irrelevant.

N.C. House Bill 142, which was filed on Feb. 21, would require that the same police records be disclosed on both private and public campuses. The bill is currently in a House judiciary subcommittee.

“This looks like an attempt to head off a much broader ruling that might open up vastly more of their documents for public scrutiny,” LoMonte said.

LoMonte added that the bill will likely pass.

“Nick (Ochsner) will probably get a favorable ruling from the (N.C.) Supreme Court, but it will be superseded by whatever the legislators enact,” he said.

The rulings for Ochsner’s case should be released in a couple of months, Martin said.

“The police are doing the most sensitive job of any public servant in America,” LoMonte said. “Because they carry with them power over your freedom and even your life, its essential that the public have some oversight.”

Contact the desk editor at state@dailytarheel.com.