State Rep. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, is attempting to change state law to make certain police records at private universities public.
House Bill 1022, authored by Bauer and Rep. Casey Cox, R-Ft. Wayne, was introduced on Tuesday. If passed, it will require that private university police department records relating to arrests or incarcerations for criminal offenses be considered public records.
The move comes nine months after ESPN lost a lawsuit against the University of Notre Dame over access to police records. ESPN appealed the case to the Indiana Court of Appeals, and oral arguments are scheduled for Feb. 24.
Notre Dame spokesman Dennis Brown said by email Friday that the university believes some aspects of Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act should apply to private university police departments.
And, he said, Notre Dame worked with Bauer and others to make potential changes to the law.
“… Notre Dame offered its support, perspective and assistance to the leaders of the Independent Colleges of Indiana as they worked with Rep. Bauer to craft revisions to APRA to open police records while still maintaining compliance with federal regulations regarding student privacy,” Brown said in a statement.
Notre Dame has a police force with arrest powers but historically has not made records available to the public, as municipal forces do. The university has an online blotter of crimes reported to NDSP, but the blotter generally does not contain specific locations, names and a general description of the alleged crime, as city, county and state police agencies Indiana are required to provide.
Steve Key, an attorney and executive director of the Hoosier State Press Association, said while it’s obvious Bauer and others think there should be greater transparency on the part of private university police forces, he doesn’t believe the legislation goes far enough.