Court rules Notre Dame can keep campus police reports secret
INDIANAPOLIS — The University of Notre Dame’s police department doesn’t have to release crime reports about student athletes to ESPN, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
The court said in unanimous ruling that the private university’s police department isn’t a public agency that falls under the state open records law. The state’s highest court reversed a state appeals court decision from March that said the law applied because the department has legal authority from the state to make arrests and has jurisdiction beyond the university’s campus.
The Supreme Court justices found the public records law didn’t apply to Notre Dame police because the department isn’t part of any level of government.
“A grant of arrest powers enabling university police departments to keep order on their private campuses does not transform those officers or the trustees who oversee them into public officials and employees,” Justice Mark Massa wrote.