Brown University police should not be exempt from public records law, ACLU lawsuit claims
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The lawsuit argues that Brown University's Department of Public Safety wields state-authorized police powers and therefore fits within the state Access to Public Records Act's definition of an 'agency.'
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'The purpose of this action is simple,' ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorney Fausto Anguilla said in a statement. 'Every city and town police department in Rhode Island must provide arrest reports under APRA. Brown's police should not be an exception.'
Anguilla, a former state representative, filed the lawsuit in state Superior Court against Brown University's Department of Public Safety on behalf of two journalists, after the department refused to provide them reports of arrests made by Brown officers.
In 2022, Noble Brigham, then a Brown Daily Herald reporter, was investigating the story of a man who had been charged multiple times by Brown's Department of Public Safety with trespassing and breaking and entering on the Brown campus.
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Brigham submitted a public records request for the arrest reports, which was initially ignored by Department of Public Safety. When the department did respond, it was to assert that the Access to Public Records Act didn't apply because Brown is a private university.
In 2023, Motif Magazine reporter Michael Bilow was reporting on
When Bilow filed an public records request seeking the arrest reports, Brown public safety department ignored the request. Bilow and Brigham filed complaints with Attorney General Peter F. Neronha's office. In January, his office issued an opinion, agreeing with Brown that the university was not subject to the state's Access to Public Records Act.
The lawsuit Monday
notes that the public records law applies to private agencies that are 'acting on behalf of and/or in place of any public agency,' and the suit claims the Brown Department of Public Safety fits that definition.
'By engaging in one of the most fundamental functions of government — the enforcement of criminal laws and exercising the power to search and seize individuals — (the Brown Department of Public Safety) is acting on behalf of and/or in place of a government agency or public body," the suit states.
The lawsuit asks the judge to declare that the Brown Department of Public Safety is a public body within the meaning of Access to Public Records Act, and that it must comply with requests for arrest records and other publicly available law enforcement documents.
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Bilow said, 'Experience has proven that preventing police abuses depends on full transparency under the law, and it is a civic responsibility of news reporting to keep the public aware and informed about what is done in their name.'
Brigham said, 'Access to police reports is a basic public right. The public should be able to understand why police have arrested someone, and Brown's stance that its nonprofit status exempts them from the state law every municipal Rhode Island police department follows is troubling.'
Brown University did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
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