SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – Indiana's public access counselor says the University of Notre Dame's police department is subject to the state's public records law.

Access Counselor Luke Britt says in a formal opinion released Thursday that Notre Dame's police department is a public law enforcement agency with the same requirements to maintain and release public records as all other police agencies in Indiana.

The South Bend Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/1wsela2 ) the newspaper and ESPN had both filed public access complaints over Notre Dame's refusal to release campus police incident reports.

Notre Dame has long maintained that it's exempt from Indiana's public records law because it's a private school.

But Britt's ruling say that while Notre Dame's police department is part of the private school “their powers come from the state of Indiana.''