1. Georgia Judge Orders Private University to Release Police Records 2. Tennessee Bill Would Require Local Police To Investigate Campus Deaths 3. Campus Crime In The News
	Georgia Judge Orders Private University to Release Police Records Macon, GA-When a private university employs sworn police officers who have the power to arrest and press charges against suspects, then the school is serving a public function and must make its police records public, a Georgia judge ruled Monday. Judge L.A. McConnell Jr. ordered Mercer University to comply with Georgia's Open Records Act, saying Mercer met the law's definition of a public agency even though it is a private entity because its police force is fulfilling a state function to enforce the law. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by an Atlanta law firm, Barrett & Farahany, who had earlier sued Mercer on behalf of a former student who had been raped on campus. In the process of investigating that case, attorney Amanda A. Farahany came to realize that Mercer does not employ security guards but officers sworn under Georgia law with all the duties and authority of police officers employed by local governments. But Mercer refused her requests for incident reports relating to sexual assaults on campus, saying it was not subject to the Open Records law as a private university. At least three other private universities across the country are currently involved in disputes over public access to records kept by their police departments. The student newspaper at Harvard, the Crimson, has a hearing Feb. 23 in its fight to obtain police records there. A commercial newspaper, The Ithaca Journal, is trying to get police records out of Cornell University, and a former student is trying to get police records at Taylor University in Indiana. The schools all argue they are not subject to state open records laws because they are private institutions. "When states delegate a government function to a privately owned body, they cannot remove the obligation for public oversight," said Carolyn S. Carlson, vice-chair of the Society of Professional Journalists' Subcommittee on Campus Crime and a former SPJ national president. "When campus police act as public agencies, they must follow sunshine laws, even though their actual employers are private institutions." Farahany, in her brief requesting a restraining order, said, "The public has a fundamental right of access to the police reports and investigations to ascertain whether the public's business is being conducted in accordance with state and federal law. In addition, the public has a right to know of the occurrences of crime so that they can make informed decisions about their safety." "Although there is no specific constitutional right to police protection, a state may not discriminate in providing such protection. It is unconstitutional under the equal protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment due process clause and under the First Amendment. By denying one segment of the population access to crime reports, it is denying a segment of the population equal police protection. Moreover, arbitrary interference with access to important information is an abridgement of the freedom of speech (and of the press) as protected by the First Amendment." She noted that private universities are obligated under the federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, more commonly known as the Clery Act, to maintain a public police log. But she said that Mercer had failed to comply with that law until she filed her lawsuit in November. "Each day that Mercer continues to be allowed the same authority as every other police force, allowed the opportunity to take away a person's liberty and freedom and the public has no right to oversight of their operations, the public is irreparably harmed," Farahany argued. "Mercer's policy of secrecy about past crimes occurring on its campus must cease." Tennessee Bill Would Require Local Police To Investigate Campus Deaths Nashville, TN-Deaths and rapes on Tennessee's college and university campuses would be investigated by local police rather than campus police under legislation introduced last week in the General Assembly by state Rep. Nathan Vaughn (D-Kingsport) and state Sen. Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville). The bill, prompted by the death of a student last March at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, would ensure that campus communities benefit from the experience and forensic resources of city police and county sheriff's departments according to campus safety advocates. The "Robert 'Robbie' Nottingham Campus Crime Scene Investigation Act of 2004" (HB 2753, SB 2797) is named in memory of the student who died at ETSU, and was developed by his parents, Jim and Mary, after questions were raised about the thoroughness of the investigation undertaken by campus authorities. Robbie Nottingham died from head trauma apparently caused by a fall from the second story of an on-campus apartment building, but authorities have been unable to conclusively determine what happened the night he died and his family believes foul play may have been involved. The family is offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for his death. "A tragedy helped craft this," Jim Nottingham said. "I hope that in some way, the kids who are not born yet are safer because of my son's death. At some schools, safety has taken a back seat. My son's education is not doing him a bit of good. Our kids need to be safe. It's too late for him. I'm a Christian, I believe he's in heaven, and I believe I will see him again." The legislation is "very commonsensical," said Connie Clery a national campus safety advocate, and co-founder of the national non-profit victims' rights group Security On Campus, Inc. SOC, founded by Clery and her husband Howard after their daughter Jeanne was murdered at a Pennsylvania college in 1986, is the only national organization devoted to promoting safer campuses and has been assisting the Nottingham family since shortly after Robbie's death. Campus Crime In The News Vaughn files campus crime scene bill in legislature (Kingsport Times-News; 01/25/04) Private police powers need public scrutiny (The Macon Telegraph; 01/25/04) Groups try to stop sexual offenses on PSU campus (Centre Daily Times; 01/24/04) CSU now reports crimes correctly (Ledger-Enquirer; 01/23/04) UGA to award posthumous degree (Atlanta Journal-Constitution; 01/20/04) Arrest made in UP killing (The Oregonian; 01/17/04) Suits filed in Grundy law-school shootings (Richmond Times-Dispatch; 01/17/04) 8th student assaulted at Harvard (The Daily Free Press; 01/15/04)
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