Almost three months after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in favor of former Otterbein360 news editor Anna Schiffbauer against Otterbein over the release of OPD police records, Otterbein has finally fully complied with a records request. The university has consequently created a policy allowing for members of the public to make their own requests.
In 2011 the Otterbein Security Force became a fully commissioned police department in the midst of the school’s transition from College to University and from quarters to semesters. The Tan and Cardinal staff at the time saw this change as a new era of transparency in Otterbein’s history, but the school was hesitant to embrace this view, citing privacy concerns and most notably: FERPA. The school said it was chiefly interested and still maintains an interest in protecting victims.
The well-documented short of it is that Otterbein police and administration denied records request after records request until Schiffbauer decided to mount a winning legal contest which ultimately resulted in the 4-3 decision of Schiffbauer v. Banaszak.
What this ruling means for you is that first and foremost, that new era of transparency that the 2011 T&C staff and all staff who came after fought for has arrived. You will now have access to an unprecedented amount of information about campus crime and police procedure by submitting a records request with OPD.
You will now also have the ability as a member or an observer of the Otterbein Community to exercise oversight over the Campus Police Force. A campus police force which is authorized to employ the use of firearms, pepper spray, tasers and other modern police tools. A police force that can arrest you, can hold you and can charge you with crimes.
Otterbein360.com also recognizes and shares many of the concerns of the administration. You have never read and will never read an article which divulges the name or personal identifying information of a victim beyond what that victim has given permission to print. This is because while there is not a privacy interest in committing a crime, there is a privacy interest for being the victim of a crime and we promise to protect that privacy.
We do, however, vow as Otterbein’s independent source for campus news to continue to provide you with the information that you need to make informed decisions. We promise to provide crime reporting that offers context to the facts. We believe that by shining a light onto the police, as in any corner of university administration, that you as a member of the community can be more confident than ever that campus police officers will perform their duties honorably at least while journalists are looking over their shoulders for any abuse of power.
