The Post editorial staff clarifies information from stolen social security numbers.
The Post’s top editors penned an editorial last Thursday stating that Student Senate members should have been quicker to act when dealing with students’ stolen personal information.
In the editorial, we wrote that a member of Student Senate allegedly stole files containing nine students’ home addresses and partial social security numbers from a desk drawer in senate’s Baker Center office. We also stated that no one had yet submitted a report to the Ohio University Police Department.
We stand by that information — it’s all correct — but we also acknowledge that there was another piece of information that we should have provided to our readers.
We neglected to include information we had reported earlier: the stolen information was not property of Student Senate, but was instead property of two senate members who weren’t using the information for senate business.
This distinction is key because, in a case such as this, it’s our understanding that police officers generally do not open formal investigations into theft cases unless the theft is confirmed by the party whose belongings were taken. But there was nothing stopping any person with knowledge of the missing documents from alerting OUPD right away.
It was OUPD that first approached senate about the stolen documents, Chief Andrew Powers told Editor-in-Chief Jim Ryan in a phone conversation Wednesday. He said OUPD read about the stolen information in the newspaper and made some “preliminary inquiries” with senate to see if complete social security numbers had been stolen, as was discussed at last Wednesday’s Student Senate meeting and reported by The Post shortly thereafter.
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Once OUPD realized students’ full social security numbers weren’t stolen — as The Post reported early last Thursday evening — Powers said the department took a step back and waited for the party who owned the property to make a report. A report was filed Friday afternoon, and the alleged theft is currently under investigation.
We stand by our previously stated opinion that senate members should have acted more proactively to alert OUPD about the stolen information — even though Powers said OUPD wouldn’t have been compelled to open a formal investigation without receiving a report from an owner of the documents.
OUPD would have learned about the missing information sooner and could have advised the students on how to proceed.
Campus authorities shouldn’t have to read about alleged crimes in their jurisdiction by reading the newspaper.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post's executive editors: editor-in-chief Jim Ryan, managing editor Sara Jerde, opinion editor Xander Zellner and projects editor Allan Smith. Post editorials are independent of the publication's news coverage.
