COTA Refuses To Release Incident Reports

The Sussi Report recently spoke with some COTA (Central Ohio Transit Authority) drivers protesting outside of the company's headquarters on High Street.

They are fed with with riders regularly harassing, threatening and assaulting them, and demand that COTA does something about it. Nobody, in any line of work, should have to fear for their well-being and safety at work.

To better understand the scope of the drivers' concerns, The Sussi Report filed a public records request with COTA. We asked for copies of all incident reports from January 1, 2020 to October 1, 2021, in which COTA drivers were verbally or physically assaulted on the job.

In the attached email, Nicole M. Weathers, the company's Paralegal/Public /Public Records Officer, informed The Sussi Report that our public records request is denied because "incident reports are attorney-client

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privileged" information. Ms. Weathers then went on to cite some case law.

COTA can't redact private information from those incident reports like names, addresses and birthdates? Sure it can and that's what The Sussi Report is now requesting. Stay tuned.