The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that police departments at private universities are subject to public records search. This means private universities cannot shield police activities from the community.
Back in January of 2014, an Otterbein University student working on the campus newspaper tried to get reports on student and non-student criminal cases that had been referred to the Westerville Mayor鈥檚 Court by the school鈥檚 police department. But Otterbein officials refused, saying the private university鈥檚 records are not public.
A divided Ohio Supreme Court has sided with the student journalist, saying the police force at Otterbein was established to perform a government function. And the court has ordered the police chief at Otterbein to hand over the records that were requested last year.