This week, that cooperation fell apart. In response to Friday's sexual assault allegation, The Daily Gamecock requested police reports related to the incident. At every turn, the Columbia Police Department stood in our way. It resisted our staff's myriad requests and questions in a manner that was unnecessarily unhelpful. The department's stonewalling even stretched the boundaries of public information laws.
However, the Columbia Police Department continues to ignore this right. A report released to us Wednesday came from the officer at the hospital — not the officer who responded to the crime scene — and was so heavily redacted that the information was convoluted and largely unhelpful. Only after finally reaching Police Chief Randy Scott were our reporters able to glean any substantial details.
This attitude does not just speak negatively of the police department's engagement of local news sources, but also of its investment in the USC community in general. The police have an obligation — as we have ours — to give both our city and our campus every resource necessary for its protection.
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