THE PENDULUM
NEWS
WEDNESDAY. MARCH 17, 2010 n PAGE 3
Sunshine Week at Elon
illuminates issues about open
government laws in N.C.
...
—. Vtoeo COURTESY OF PHOENIXU NEWS
Connie Book, associate dean of the School of Communications and director of the Sunshine Center, said Sunshine
Laws exist to protect citizens’ right to governmental information.
elon
up
I
ACCORDING TO GANTQS:
Gantos, director of Campus Safety
must be made public
Name of agency
Case number
Officer and supervisor
Crimes
Charges
Whether the crime was attempted or
completed
Date of occurrence
Date the officer responded
Location
Premise type
and Police, reveals what information
What type of resident was involved
Whether the crime was forcible
Victim information (for non-sexual assault
cases)
Injuries
Whether alcohol and drugs were used
Relationship of victim to offender
Resident status
Whether other people were involved
A list of things that may have been stolen
Jack Dodson and Drew Smith
News Editor and Reporter
In light of Sunshine Week
events around North Carolina
this week. Elon University
officials, students and
professors are discussing the
way open government affects
the school.
Sunshine laws, or open
records laws, are laws that
allow for public access to
governmental information and
serve a role in the everyday
work of police departments,
courtrooms, press rooms and
law offices.
At Elon, the public record
laws play a unique role
because the North Carolina
Open Government Coalition,
or the Sunshine Center, is run
through the university and
is an organization that seeks
to uphold open government
laws.
Connie Book, the associate
dean of the School of
Communications and director
of the Sunshine Center, said
the week is in celebration of the
“legal right that citizens have
to attend public meetings and
to request public records."
According to Book, the idea
in North Carolina applies to
both government meetings
and records that should be
made public.
“If you think about open
government in terms of the
citizen, the citizen pays for
those records and pays for
those meetings through our
tax dollar," Book said.
The same rules apply
across the board for Elon
policing bodies, including
Campus Safety and Police,
according to members of
the police departments and
Dale Harrison, the assistant
director of Elon's Sunshine
Center.
“Basically, we’re subject
to the same laws, rules and
regulations as any other law
enforcement agency," said
Chuck Gantos, the director of
Campus Safety and Police.
He said the department
uses a software package at
the department that prints
a public copy of incident
reports, taking care of what’s
public information and what’s
not.
Gantos said his department
makes most things public
but sometimes withholds
the narrative of the incident,
since it isn’t included in open
records law.
“If there arc records that fall
under the public records act of
North Carolina, those records
must be made available,
according to law,” Harrison
said. “And when it comes to
law enforcement, some of
those records are going to
include a daily police log, and
also incident reports and all
the identifying information of
that incident report."
Harrison said Sunshine
Week focuses on state
government transparency.
The only way to retrieve
public records from agencies
that fail to provide them,
according to Book, is to report
a violation to the state's
attorney general or to file a
law suit.
Town of Elon Police Chief
LaVell Lovette could not be
reached for comment on the
issue.
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