Thursday, January 19, 2006

~ massachusetts court rules harvard u police reports are not public records ~

The Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled that the police reports of the Harvard University Police Department are not public records.

The Court also rejected The Crimson's claims that private entities, once endowed with certain state powers, become public entities. Instead, the Court held that even when granted special powers, HUPD does not become "an agency of the commonwealth such that it becomes subject to the mandates of the public records law."
This determination runs counter to an Indiana Court of Appeals decision that the retention of records by a private entity related to government agency business are public records.

Surely the authorization accorded to any police agency to arrest falls within the public purview.


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