Thursday, October 8
• 12:26 a.m. An employee was arrested for public drunkenness at Zacharias Village.
• 2:07 a.m. A student was arrested for driving under the influence, speeding and no insurance on Highway 12.
• 6:16 a.m. An employee reported a suspicious person at Allen Hall.
Editor’s Note: Bad Dawgs from Oct. 9 to Oct. 12. were not included due to a miscommunication of a recent policy change regarding the availability of incident reports at Mississippi State University. In accordance with Mississippi law, incident reports are available to the public. The Reflector will publish the reports for these days when they are available. The following is The Reflector’s account of attempts to acquire the reports.
Monday, October 12
• 3:33 p.m. Realizing the complete reports for Oct. 8 to 12 had not been received, The Reflector managing editor Aubra Whitten e-mailed the MSU Police Department office associate Angela Collins requesting the reports.
• Approximately 3:50 p.m. Collins called Whitten at The Reflector and said she was told the reports would no longer be made available to The Reflector. Collins said she did not realize The Reflector had not been notified of the new policy. She said she was told by a supervisor that the policy was changed by the dean of students.
• 4:15 p.m. The Reflector editor in chief Carl Smith called MSU police chief Georgia Lindley to verify the matter. Lindley said the department was told to reduce the e-mailed report distribution list.
• 4:30 p.m. Smith walked to Lee Hall to discuss the matter with dean of students Thomas Bourgeois and vice president for student affairs Bill Kibler. He was told both were in meetings and unavailable.
• 5 p.m. Bourgeois called Smith to clarify the matter. He said reports would still be available to The Reflector, but would have to be acquired in person at the police department.
• 5:20 p.m. Whitten walked to the police department to acquire the reports for Oct. 8 to 12. Police officials told her Collins is the official responsible for providing the records and the reports could only be viewed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• 5:25 p.m. Smith called Bourgeois for clarification of the hours and procurement methods. Bourgeois apologized for the inconvenience and said he would work with The Reflector to clarify the new policy.
• 6:08 p.m. Bourgeois called Whitten to arrange appointments at the police department to view the incident reports.
• Time of Publication The Reflector plans to work with the dean of students to resolve this matter and continue to provide the incident reports to the Mississippi State community.
