An Otterbein University student journalist this afternoon asked the Ohio Supreme Court to order campus police at the private school to turn over arrest reports and other records. The action filed yesterday says that the police department of the Westerville college is a public office performing a governmental function and is required to make records available under Ohio's public-records laws.

After repeated, unsuccessful requests for campus police records, an Otterbein University student journalist is asking the Ohio Supreme Court to order the private school to turn over arrest reports and other records.

The action filed yesterday says that the police department of the Westerville college is a public office performing a governmental function and is required to make records available under Ohio�s public-records laws.

Student journalists at the liberal-arts college have battled Otterbein over its refusal to release records since the campus security force became a full-fledged police department of state-certified officers in 2011.

�This is many, many denials later. It�s an issue of transparency for us. They are a public entity associated with a private university. Their records should be public,� said Anna Schiffbauer, news editor of Otterbein360.com, a student-run news website.

Schiffbauer, assisted by a $5,000 grant from the Society of Professional Journalists� Legal Defense Fund, filed the claim against campus police director Larry Banaszak and Robert Gatti, a vice president and dean of student affairs.

The 22-year-old senior�s latest request for the records of 47 people arrested by campus police and referred to Westerville mayor�s court since the beginning of 2013 was denied last month by school officials.

School spokeswoman Jennifer Pearce said that Otterbein University is private and exempt from public-records laws, and she said that federal law requires it to protect certain information about students from release, including victims of sexual assault.

Numbers about crime on campus are available on the university website and information about arrests is available in the courts in which cases are filed, she said.

A pair of Ohio House members introduced a bill to make private police forces subject to the state�s public-records laws in response to a story published by The Dispatch last month. Attorney General Mike DeWine also called for the change.

The Dispatch reported that 814 state-trained police officers with arrest powers work for 39 private-sector employers, mainly private universities and hospitals. But unlike government police, they are not required to make records public.

In the suit filed against Otterbein, Cincinnati lawyer John Greiner says the university police department is a public office created by state law to perform a government function.

�The records relating to OPD�s uniquely public function are public records. That fact does not change simply because Otterbein University pays their salary,� the suit states.

In addition to its on-campus duties, the university�s police are authorized by Westerville to write tickets and make arrests on city streets bordering and running through campus.

The action seeks payment of court costs, attorney fees and damages, which are capped by law at a maximum of $1,000.

rludlow@dispatch.com

@RandyLudlow