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The Daily OrangePrivate practice
Should private university records be made public?
By David Taube
Posted: 2/5/08, 1:07 AM EST Section: News
To respond to this concealed practice, Georgia enacted legislation to make private campus law enforcements agencies like Mercer's subject to the same open records laws of police departments at public universities.
Legislation like this has not been made in New York, which explains why SU can withhold the names of students in public records. Callisto said if there were, they would comply.
In a similar case in 2006, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled against The Harvard Crimson, Harvard University's newspaper, finding the Harvard University Police Department is a private entity not required to release police reports. Massachusetts proposed a bill similar to Georgia's last year.
"Why should a Harvard, a Yale or another private institution be able to project a false image of a safe, crime-free campus when the competing public university across town is held to a different standard?" said LoMonte, whose organization provided legal counsel for The Crimson.
Congress addressed the criticism of withholding information by police agencies by passing the Jeanne Clery Act in 1998, LoMonte said. This legislation was drafted after the rape and murder of Jeanne Clery in her Lehigh University dormitory.
As a result, institutions are required to provide timely alerts, publish an annual crime statistics report and maintain a daily crime log.
Mandating the release of detailed police reports of private institutions under open state records laws has been limited to states leading legislation that treat public and private campus law enforcement agencies equally.
"What the legislature in Georgia became convinced of, is that campus police departments at private institutions are performing a function that is so similar to what an ordinary police department does, that there's no reason to treat them differently for open records purposes," LoMonte said.
Eight states have enacted legislation to essentially make private campus police departments subject to the same open records laws as public campus police agencies, LoMonte said. New York is not among those.
Legislation like this has not been made in New York, which explains why SU can withhold the names of students in public records. Callisto said if there were, they would comply.
In a similar case in 2006, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled against The Harvard Crimson, Harvard University's newspaper, finding the Harvard University Police Department is a private entity not required to release police reports. Massachusetts proposed a bill similar to Georgia's last year.
"Why should a Harvard, a Yale or another private institution be able to project a false image of a safe, crime-free campus when the competing public university across town is held to a different standard?" said LoMonte, whose organization provided legal counsel for The Crimson.
Congress addressed the criticism of withholding information by police agencies by passing the Jeanne Clery Act in 1998, LoMonte said. This legislation was drafted after the rape and murder of Jeanne Clery in her Lehigh University dormitory.
As a result, institutions are required to provide timely alerts, publish an annual crime statistics report and maintain a daily crime log.
Mandating the release of detailed police reports of private institutions under open state records laws has been limited to states leading legislation that treat public and private campus law enforcement agencies equally.
"What the legislature in Georgia became convinced of, is that campus police departments at private institutions are performing a function that is so similar to what an ordinary police department does, that there's no reason to treat them differently for open records purposes," LoMonte said.
Eight states have enacted legislation to essentially make private campus police departments subject to the same open records laws as public campus police agencies, LoMonte said. New York is not among those.
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