Alert Carolina stands by the decision to release student's name

University officials are standing by their decision to include the name of a student in an Alert Carolina email after he was arrested for sexual battery.

Alert Carolina sent a campuswide email Sept. 12, requesting information about an incident that occurred on the P2P Express early the previous morning.

The notification included a link to a photo of the suspect. Matthew Kirby was arrested by campus police Sept. 13 and charged with two counts of sexual battery.

A second notification was sent to students the same day, naming Kirby as the suspect and crediting the arrest to information provided in response to the first email.

Jeff McCracken, chief of campus police and an author of recent revisions to the Alert Carolina system, said an executive committee could review whether or not suspects’ names will be released by the service in the future.

“It wasn’t wrong legally,” he said. “The name is part of public record, and we can do what we want to with that.”

Though Alert Carolina chose to publish Kirby’s name, UNC’s Department of Public Safety was legally required to, said Randy Young, spokesman for DPS.

“Names of those arrested are always made public,” Young said. “By law, public information has to be released.”

Young said DPS has received some complaints about the Alert Carolina notifications.

“Any time action is taken by Alert Carolina, the incident and how it’s handled has to be reviewed,” Young said.

He said a review of this incident has yet to take place.

“A warning to campus about a crime should have occurred, and it did occur,” McCracken said, but added that Alert Carolina’s notification plans don’t include protocol about releasing a suspect’s name.

Young said DPS could not release the name of the person who reported Kirby to police.

“That information is part of the investigation,” Young said. “It’s our policy that we don’t release the names of victims in sexually related incidents.”

He said victims are less likely to report sexual assault if they think their name will be reported.

Last week, attorney Amos Tyndall entered an appearance for Kirby’s first court date.

Tyndall wrote in an email that he has not been hired to represent Kirby, who is scheduled to re-appear in court in October.

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.