Private university police forces will now have to comply with new measures in the Texas Public Information Act, increasing transparency measures and releasing records related to law enforcement activities to the public.
The new law states that campus police at private institutions, like SMU, are “a law enforcement agency and governmental body” with respect to information about law enforcement activities. The law requires private universities to comply with the same public records requirement as any other Texas police force.
Sen. John Whitmire, Democrat, introduced the bill after officials at Rice University refused to release information about an on-campus incident where campus police beat a suspected bike thief with their batons. The incident was caught on surveillance video, but the university was not required to release the reports under the Texas Public Information Act.
The bill (S.B. No. 308), approved unanimously in both the Texas House of Representatives and Texas Senate earlier this year, was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott June 1 and took effect Sept. 1 on SMU’s campus.
“This has been coming for years and its been talked about for years,” SMU Police Chief Rick Shafer said. “We’ve been preparing for it since we knew it passed.”
A team of SMU Police officers and SMU legal officials worked together to get SMU in compliance with the Texas law. The team developed the websites and forms, looked at other university police departments and spoke with Highland Park, University Park and Dallas Police, who have always followed the public information laws.
“This is a new program but we’re working with our attorneys and other universities to see what other schools are doing,” Shafer said.
The SMU Police Department launched its Public Information site Tuesday with information on how to obtain these public records and a template form to submit to the department.
“You can submit this in any form of writing and we just created this form as a convenient way to do it,” SMU Police Lt. Brian Kelly said.
The public information requests ask for specific information about the dates, times, location, individuals’ names and date of birth for the incident.
“The reason we ask for it being as specific as possible is that it makes it easier for us to find the information you want,” Kelly said.
Completed forms can be submitted in person, via email, fax or mail. The department has 10 business days to release the information or refer the matter to the Office of the Attorney General for a ruling, which can take up to 45 business days.
“We’ll either give you the report you want or we’ll give you a statement saying we have asked for an Attorney General’s opinion on whether we can release this or not,” Shafer said.
According to SMU PD, if a request for a report is denied, the ruling will come from the Attorney General.
SMU law student Ryan Jones believes the law will be helpful for SMU students and parents who care about what is happening on their campus.
“Any additional information they get will be beneficial,” Jones said.
Currently, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia are the only other states requiring private university police departments to follow the same open records policy. Jones believes the rulings will slowly become widespread laws.
“Fifteen years ago, virtually none of these court rulings existed, none of these statutes existed,” he said. “Sooner or later, a majority of states are going to have some sort of statue or court ruling that follows the trends of campuses.”
