N.C. Supreme Court will consider case involving private campus police records

From Student Press Law Center (SPLC):

The North Carolina Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case regarding campus police records at private schools, an important victory for the Elon University graduate and former student journalist.

In June, the N.C. court of appeals ruled that private university police departments in the state are not subject to the state’s open records law. The appeals court upheld an earlier ruling issued last year that found the school provided sufficient information when Nick Ochsner requested police records from the school’s Campus Safety and Police Department.

Ochsner, a former reporter for the school’s campus TV station, sought records relating to an on-campus arrest of another student. He was eventually provided a bare-bones incident report with the suspect’s name, date and location of arrest, charges and bond amount. Ochsner seeks the narrative account of the report.

Campus police records at public universities are public under the state’s open records law.