For the past two and a half years, Tan & Cardinal newspaper and Otterbein360 have made multiple requests for reports of arrest and incident reports. These records are the same type of reports available from any law enforcement agency. Those requests have been denied.
On Thursday, Anna Schiffbauer, news editor for Otterbein360, filed a lawsuit in the Ohio Supreme Court against the university for denying her records request. While Schiffbauer’s name is on the filing, other members of Otterbein360 are fully supportive of this case.
Since Otterbein’s security force became a commissioned police department in 2011, members of the Tan & Cardinal newspaper and Otterbein360.com staff’s have explored other avenues of negotiation with the university in an attempt to resolve this issue. After serious consideration, we decided to take legal action.
Why it matters
The current policy of keeping incident reports and arrest reports private jeopardizes Otterbein students’ ability to know what occurs on this campus. Westerville residents also have a stake in the policy because they are subject to OPD’s jurisdiction when they drive through and around campus. The current policy means that when a crime occurs on campus, we do not have access to the report. If the same crime occurred in Westerville Police Department jurisdiction, we would be able to request and receive the report.
Holding the authorities accountable for their actions is essential to establish public trust in our legal system. The accused and the public are entitled to see the accusations made against them, including incident and arrest reports.
The actions that Otterbein360 is taking have the potential to impact all Ohio private institutions with police forces. As noted in the recent Dispatch article, the problem is recognized statewide at private institutions that have a commissioned police force.
We oppose the policy of denying public records at the Otterbein Police Department. The lawsuit is not an attack on the people carrying out the policy but rather the policy itself.
We will provide updates as the case progresses.
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