From the Burlington Times-News (6/7/12): If an arrest is made by town of ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ police, details of that crime soon become public. North Carolina law requires that a substantial amount of information about the crime be released in a timely manner and upon request.
But, in the wake of a shortsighted ruling issued this week by the N.C. Court of Appeals, if someone is arrested on the campus of ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ by campus police the entire incident can be withheld from public view.
This arresting development is the product of a poorly reasoned opinion by the court stemming from a case involving ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ and a former student who was also a reporter for the campus TV station. The Court of Appeals in Ochsner vs. ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ ruled that campus police departments are not public agencies and, thus, not subject to the state’s public records law. It’s a chilling decision that effectively creates a scenario for secret police actions on private college or university campuses across North Carolina.
The court’s ruling not only affirms, it expands a lower court ruling issued in July 2011 regarding whether the university provided adequate information when student reporter Nick Ochsner sought records from the ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ Campus Safety and Police Department regarding the arrest of a student. Campus police, after multiple requests, released a portion of the incident report that included the student’s name, date, location of the arrest, charges and bond amount. It was not, however, the complete report.