Sound Shore

The state Committee on Open Government has ruled that SUNY Purchase should release parts of what was reported to campus police on an alleged assault last month.

State university officials refused a Journal News Freedom of Information request for the police report, citing a continuing investigation and personal privacy.

But Bob Freeman, executive director of the Committee on Open Government, wrote in an advisory opinion that ”(police reports) to suggest that they may be withheld in their entirety, categorically, is is our opinion contrary to both the language of the Freedom of Information Law  and its judicial construction by the state’s highest court.”

He noted that while certain parts of the record—a victim’s medical or mental health condition—can be withheld, the time and place of the alleged incident and “a description of the event, would, in our view, be accessible.”

College officials  have declined to say when and where the alleged assault occurred, but students spotted police officers searching a wooded area in Alumni Village. An investigator also asked students if they  heard anything suspicious around 2:3o a.m. on April 17.

The Committee on Open Government oversees and advises other state agencies on complying with Freedom of Information and Open Meetings laws.