Cedar Point Above the Law?

I think I've done it before, but I was nonetheless unable to find the button to submit a news article here. In any case, this is an interesting read and certainly alarming if it's true:

https://sanduskyregister.com/news/339624/cedar-point-above-the-law/

The references to "private police departments" don't make any sense to me. If it's "private," it's not a police department, it's a security force. I'm not sure what the laws are in Ohio, but the stonewalling that Cedar Point is doing in this case leaves a bad taste in my mouth...

I'm not sure why the Register is so hard up for these reports from Cedar Point Police regarding the TTD incident. Unless things have changed from when I worked at the park, from my experience with the CPPD, they don't really "investigate" anything like a ride accident. They will get witness statements and general information about anyone who would go to the hospital but they aren't going to have maintenance reports, pictures of the trains, etc like you would see in an episode of CSI. I think what the Register wants is what the Maintenance Department has in their investigation reports but that isn't going to happen.

The good news about not being able to figure out how to submit this as news is that you don't have to be disappointed when it's not accepted as a news item.

When a real newspaper believes it has a FOIA issue, it files a lawsuit, and if the court agrees with the newspaper, it issues an order for the public agency to release whatever it is that they're asking for. They have a remedy, and it sounds like Tony offered it several times. Lawyer up.

The big box of stupid here though is that there's likely nothing new to learn. The CP police aren't investigating the accident, so no matter what their status is as a quasi-public agency, you're going to get the incident report that you've already seen. If I had to bet on it, there isn't anything else to give, and harassing the park over it is unprofessional and trash reporting.

As someone with a journalism degree, it makes me sad to see what the local press has become.

Clickbait works. Look at what happened to Newsweek. Many news organizations are prioritizing profit over journalistic integrity and consumers are all too happy to oblige.

Out of curiosity I looked up who owns the Register and the parent company is Ogden Newspapers. The CEO is Bob Nutting, whose name might sound very familiar if you're a Pittsburgher who curses out as certain baseball team on a daily basis. The guy's M.O. is to cheap out on absolutely everything that he owns, from sports teams to ski resorts and apparently local newspapers as well.

Not knowing details, I can also imagine that there is a ton of legal and insurance issues involved just releasing whatever reports there are, between Intamin, CP, Ohio Dept of Agriculture (which does the investigations), maybe a bit of HIPAA, etc. I suspect anyone involved has basically been told to say as little as is possible.

Unlike the State Fair accident a few years ago, this honestly is both more mundane but also more complex.