On Nov. 14 after 10 p.m., a student was allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol when he struck four parked cars in the shared housing parking lot for the Commons and West Hall dorm buildings.
University of Central Oklahoma police arrived on scene shortly after.
“So I was sitting in my car and this Mustang and silver truck were racing back and forth, and I heard a crash,” said Chasidy Bergen, a student who witnessed the incident. “Then I looked behind me and they had crashed into a car that hit two other cars.”
Ruthie Baltzell was the owner of one of the cars struck by the driver.
“I’m very upset because I’m broke,” said Baltzell. “We went to Walmart to get Cheetos, and when we came back I was standing over there eating them like, ‘What happened?’ And then I realized that that car looked really familiar. And I was like ‘That’s my car that’s slammed into.’”
The Independent View reached out to UCO police for an incident report regarding the details of the accident. No response has been received.
Over the course of several weeks, five attempts had been made by The Independent View to request an incident report from UCO police regarding an alleged altercation between UCO’s football team and the opposing team that occurred during the Homecoming Football game on Oct. 25. The sixth attempt to contact authorities was for the Nov. 14 incident report over the wreck.
Six attempts were made, and no records were provided.
The first attempt to retrieve a report was done in person on Oct. 27, where an instruction was then given to request the records online via email. An email was sent to both UCO police and Edmond police. On Oct. 29, a response was received from Edmond police, saying that they had nothing in their records and to check with UCO’s police department. As of Nov. 20, UCO police have not responded to the email.
On Nov. 4, a call was placed to UCO police to speak with the Police Chief Julius Adkins so a report could be obtained. UCO police informed The Independent View that he wasn’t in, and that it would be best to call during his office hours.
Continuous attempts were made to no avail.
On Nov. 15, a call was placed at 3:01 p.m. to ask for a report regarding the wreck that occurred the night before. UCO police asked which officers were on the scene during the incident, as well as contact information to return the call. As of Nov. 20, no report has been received.
Despite having followed the right procedures, going in person, calling and sending an email, no copy of any document has been given, nor any sort of clear explanation for the delay, and furthermore no time frame for when it might be seen.
This is not the first time an incident of this caliber has occurred in Oklahoma.
In October, Oklahoma Watch, an Oklahoma news outlet, said that it would be taking legal action against the Oklahoma City Police Department for their refusal to provide documents requested.
The Oklahoma Open Records Act states that law enforcement agencies are required to make public “A chronological list of all incidents, including initial offense report information showing the offense, date, time, general location, officer, and a brief summary of what occurred.”
Despite this however, Anthony Sykes, the current Public Access Counselor in the Attorney General’s Office chose to side with OKCPD regarding the case. The decision contradicts his previous actions, having once shown support to push for legislation which removed the limitation that an incident requires an arrest for Police Departments to be able to provide public access to the incident reports.
In a letter addressed to the then-Executive Director of the Oklahoma Association of Chiefs of Police, former Attorney General E. Scott Pruitt said “state Legislature has made it clear in this regard that a police department’s initial offense report or cover sheet should be open for public inspection, regardless of its inclusion in an investigation file.”
There are also several discrepancies in UCO police following the Clery Act, a federal law requiring any institution that participates in financial student aid funding to notify the campus when a crime has been reported. The act also states that the school is required to have an online daily log of every crime and alleged crime that occurs on campus that must be updated every 48 hours. As of Nov. 20 the Nov. 2025 crime log is missing both the alleged Homecoming brawl and the wreck outside the commons. OSU’s Nov. 2025 crime log however keeps track of a much bigger list of incidents reported so far, and that includes traffic accidents.
According to the crime logs, six arrests have been made since Aug. 8. The 2025 Annual Security and Safety Report for UCO states that “The log does not include names of parties involved except for the names of persons arrested.” Despite that, there are no recorded names for any of the individuals who were reportedly arrested.
