Norman mayoral candidate promises to comply with open government laws

The chairman of Norman's Board of Adjustment has signed FOI Oklahoma's Open Government Pledge as a candidate for mayor.
 
Thomas E. Sherman promised to comply with the letter and spirit of Oklahoma's open government laws.
 
Sherman also pledged to "support at every opportunity the public policy of the State of Oklahoma that the people are vested with the inherent right to know and be fully informed about their government so that they can efficiently and intelligently exercise their inherent political power."
 
Sherman is one of three candidates to file for mayor. The election will be April 2. If needed, a runoff would be May 14. Norman municipal races are nonpartisan.
 
Mayor Cindy Rosenthal, who is seeking re-election, signed the Open Government Pledge in 2010.
 
Sherman, 67, has served on the Board of Adjustment since 2006. He retired from McClain Bank in 2010 and is controller for Fowler Holding Co. He is a past chairman of the Norman Chamber of Commerce and a past president of the Norman Business Association.
 
FOI Oklahoma began the Open Government Pledge in spring 2008 as part of a national effort to spur public commitments to government transparency from candidates for president down to city council contests.
 
Signers are listed on the FOI Oklahoma website.
 

 
Joey Senat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU School of Media & Strategic Communications

OSU officials say sex video crime not covered by Clery Act, but federal guidelines indicate otherwise

Oklahoma State University officials are saying the Clery Act's privacy protection for victims doesn't apply if the federal statute doesn't require the school to report the crime as an annual statistic.
 
OSU spokesman Gary Shutt told reporters on Friday night that the school was permitted to include a female student's name in a police report because her allegation of a secretly recorded sex-video wasn't covered by the Clery Act.
 
"This incident did not fall under Clery, it was not a sexual assault or any other incident that falls under the Clery Act," Shutt told News 9 in Oklahoma City. "In cases that are not a violent crime, the reporting party information is made available. This was not a case that involved bodily harm or was violent."
 
He similarly told The Daily O'Collegian that the name "did not fall under Clery because it was not an assault or other Clery-covered incident."
 
OSU police Capt. Richard Atkins made the same claim, telling the newspaper:

It's an invasion of privacy crime, not a sex offense under the Clery Act, so it is not a Clery-reportable crime. It is classified in Clery logs as another state law violation.

Atkins and Shutt are correct that the federal statute lists certain crimes for which annual statistics must be reported. Those statistics must not include the names of victims and suspects.
 
However, the federal statute also requires the university to keep and make public a log of all crimes reported to campus police.
 
From the U.S. Department of Education’s 2011 Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting:

The purpose of the daily crime log is to record criminal incidents and alleged criminal incidents that are reported to the campus police or security department. For example, if a student tells your security office that he lost his wallet in the parking lot behind a dorm, it is not a criminal incident, and you aren’t required to record it in the log. However, if a student tells your security office that his wallet was stolen from his dorm room, this is an alleged criminal incident which must be recorded in the log. (p. 90)
 
How the Crime Log Differs From Other Campus Safety and Security Disclosures
 
The crime log differs from other disclosure requirements in some important ways:

• Crime log entries include all crimes reported to the campus police or security department for the required geographic locations, not just Clery Act crimes. (emphasis included)
• The crime log discloses specific information about criminal incidents, not crime statistics. (p. 91)

The OSU female student reported a crime. It must be in the crime log. So it does fall under the Clery Act.
 
And the federal handbook says victim names must be redacted from the crime log available to the public.

Many institutions are also required by state law to maintain a log. If your institution maintains such a log, you may use it for your daily crime log as well, providing it meets all Clery Act requirements. However, if the state crime log requires the victims’ names to be listed, for Clery purposes those names must be redacted for public inspection. The federal Clery Act regulations state that a disclosure may not jeopardize the confidentiality of the victim. This takes precedence over state crime log laws. (p. 90)

Oklahoma's Open Records Act doesn't distinguish between "crime logs" and "incident reports."
 
Moreover, as I noted Friday, it seems contradictory for the Clery Act to supersede state laws on "crime logs" in order to prohibit the release of the victim's name by the university but not to override state laws on "incident reports" and thus allow the release of the name by the university.
 

 
Joey Senat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU School of Media & Strategic Communications
 
The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the commentators and do not necessarily represent the position of FOI Oklahoma Inc., its staff, or its board of directors. Differing interpretations of open government law and policy are welcome.
 

Did OSU violate federal law by including victim's name in report on alleged sex video?

Oklahoma State University police are investigating a female student's complaint that her ex-boyfriend had secretly videotaped them having sex in October in an on-campus apartment that the student newspaper says is a football player's residence.
 
OSU officials redacted the ex-boyfriend's name and other identifying information from the report released to the news media.
 
The female student's name, address, date of birth and phone number were included in the report released to the news media.
 
OSU spokesman Gary Shutt defended the decision to redact the suspect's information but leave in the woman's, saying the university was required to by the state Open Records Act.
 
"The reporting party is public information; suspects and witnesses are not until charges have been filed," Shutt wrote to News On 6 in a Thursday email.
 
Shutt didn't cite a specific statutory provision requiring suspect names to be redacted from police reports or one requiring complainant names to be included.
 
Under the Open Records Act, the public is entitled to a "chronological list of incidents, including initial offense report information showing the offense, date, time, general location, officer and a brief summary of what occurred.” (OKLA. STAT. tit. 51, § 24A.8(A)(3))
 
Typically, I would agree that the names and identifying information for both complainants and suspects should be included in police reports.
 
However, OSU also is subject to the federal Clery Act, which requires all colleges and universities that receive federal funding and maintain a police or security department to keep a daily crime log that is open to public inspection.
 
The federal statute prohibits schools from identifying victims in the crime log.
 
As a U.S. Department of Education 2011 handbook explains:

Many institutions are also required by state law to maintain a log. If your institution maintains such a log, you may use it for your daily crime log as well, providing it meets all Clery Act requirements. However, if the state crime log requires the victims’ names to be listed, for Clery purposes those names must be redacted for public inspection. The federal Clery Act regulations state that a disclosure may not jeopardize the confidentiality of the victim. This takes precedence over state crime log laws.” (p. 90)

Oklahoma's Open Records Act doesn't distinguish between "crime logs" and "incident reports."
 
As state attorney general, Drew Edmondson had emphasized that access to law enforcement information does not depend on the record title used by the agency.
 
"The department doesn't have to call it a jail register. If it is a jail register, then it's a public record," Edmondson said in a police training video. "They don’t have to call it a radio log. If they keep a log of radio traffic, then it's a public record."
 
Bottom line: It seems contradictory for the Clery Act to supersede state laws on "crime logs" in order to prohibit the release of the victim's name by the university but not to override state laws on "incident reports" and thus allow the release of the name by the university.
 

 
Joey Senat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU School of Media & Strategic Communications
 
The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the commentators and do not necessarily represent the position of FOI Oklahoma Inc., its staff, or its board of directors. Differing interpretations of open government law and policy are welcome.

Ask local candidates to sign Open Government Pledge

Freedom of Information Oklahoma Inc. invites candidates for municipal offices and school board seats this spring to pledge to abide by the letter and spirit of the state's open government laws.
 
In signing the Open Government Pledge, candidates promise that they and the public bodies that they are "elected to govern will comply with not only the letter but also the spirit of Oklahoma's Open Meeting and Open Records laws."
 
Each candidate also promises to "support at every opportunity the public policy of the State of Oklahoma that the people are vested with the inherent right to know and be fully informed about their government so that they can efficiently and intelligently exercise their inherent political power."
 
The pledge and instructions for having it signed can be found on FOI Oklahoma’s website. Lists of signers also can be found on the website.
 
FOI Oklahoma began the Open Government Pledge in 2008 as part of a national effort to spur public commitments to government transparency from candidates for president down to city council contests.
 

 

FOI Oklahoma seeks nominations for First Amendment, freedom of information awards for 2012

Nominations are open for FOI Oklahoma’s awards recognizing individuals and organizations that promoted the First Amendment and the free flow of information to the public in 2012.
 
FOI Oklahoma also recognizes those who opposed dissemination of public information with its Black Hole Award.
 
The Ben Blackstock Award is presented to a non-governmental person or organization that has shown a commitment to freedom of information. The Sunshine Award goes to a public official or governmental body that has shown a commitment to open meetings and open records.
 
FOI Oklahoma also recognizes an Oklahoman who has promoted education about or protection of the individual rights guaranteed by the First Amendment with its Marian Opala First Amendment Award. The award is named for the late Oklahoma Supreme Court justice, a Polish immigrant who exemplified a belief in First Amendment rights.
 
All four awards will be presented during the Sunshine Week conference March 9. The local conference is in conjunction with national Sunshine Week, March 10-16.
 
The deadline for nominations for all four awards is Feb. 21.
 
Nominations must include a letter of no more than 250 words justifying why the person or organization is deserving of the award.
 
Nominations may be made via e-mail to foiawards@gmail.com or mailed to FOI Awards, PO Box 5315, Edmond, OK 73083-5315.
 
The 2011 winner of the Opala Award was Anthony Shadid, the Oklahoma City native and New York Times reporter who died in Syria.
 
The Blackstock Award was presented to Nicholas Harrison, a University of Oklahoma law school graduate.
 
Bradon Clabes, police chief of Midwest City, was recipient of the Sunshine Award.
 
The Black Hole Award went to Edmond City Manager Larry Stevens and the Edmond Police Department.
 
FOI Oklahoma is a statewide not-for-profit founded in 1990 to educate the public on the First Amendment and openness in government.