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It’s right there in the fourth sentence of Nevada’s open-records statute.
“The use of private entities in the provision of public services must not deprive members of the public access to inspect and copy books and records relating to the provision of those services.”
I always have to go back and read the exact language when I have a question about open records or meetings, because it doesn’t always say what I think it does. In this case, thank goodness and Assembly Bill 330, it does.
The question came up when I was reading an article in Columbia Journalism Review about the difficulty of obtaining police reports from private universities. What would happen to the same requests in Nevada?
Assembly Bill 330, introduced by John Oceguera and approved by the Legislature in 2011, was aimed at making sure contracts by government agencies to privatize services would be open to inspection by the public. Nearly all the testimony on the bill was about clarifying those provisions in the language.
However, it also included the sentence I highlighted above, which provides a broad interpretation of government records to include, for example, a company providing police services on a private university campus. If the police have similar authority to a government police force, as described in the CJR article, then they would be subject to the open-records law.
I’m not aware of any opinions or court rulings in Nevada that have tested this definition. If you are, let me know.