Senate To Vote On Public Records Bill

The Massachusetts State Senate is slated to vote next Wednesday on public records legislation that could radically alter private universities’ and their police forces’ exemption from releasing internal, crime-related documents.

Senate Bill 1735 would force private universities and hospitals to release confidential documents obtained by special state police officers to the public, according to the bill.

Special state police officers, like those of Harvard University Police Department (HUPD), are not public officers but do have the power to make arrests and obtain and exercise search warrants.

If passed through the Senate, the House and into law, the bill would render a recent Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) decision “moot,” said Colin B. Durrant, who serves as press secretary for State Senator Jarrett T. Barrios ’90. Barrios sponsored the bill, which first reached the Senate floor on Jan. 18.

Ruling on a lawsuit filed by The Crimson against HUPD regarding the release of incident reports, the state’s highest court held earlier in January that private forces like HUPD do not have to release the same amount of information as public forces.

This bill would completely override that ruling.

“Often the Court will point out that something’s not allowed under current law and it would be up to the legislature to change that,” Durrant said. “That’s exactly why this bill was filed.”

When the bill first reached the floor, Senate Minority Leader Brian P. Lees asked to postpone the vote until this coming Wednesday. Lees wanted to learn more about the bill and fully understand how it would affect private colleges in his First Hampden and Hampshire district, according to the senator’s legal counsel, Daniel J. Connelly.

Leading supporters of the bill believe it will pass through the Senate.

“No one we’ve talked to has said anything against it, so we’re confident that it will pass,” said S. Daniel Carter, senior vice president of Security on Campus, Inc., a firm lobbying legislators on the bill’s behalf.

While not willing to predict the outcome, Durrant noted that the bill is “farther along in the process than most bills get, which bodes well for it.”

Reinforced by the SJC decision, the current reading of public record law forces private police departments to release daily police logs, but not the incident reports it files for every encounter.

“It’s not as if the SJC decision is something grounded in the constitution where they have the last word,” said Ann Lambert, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts. “It’s a statutory decision.”

Supporters of the bill all echoed Massachusetts ACLU lawyer Sarah Wunsch’s opinion that since the police “hold one of the weightiest positions in the government, we think it’s important to have the records open to public scrutiny.” Wunsch also represented The Crimson in the case against HUPD.

Despite the leading Republican legislator postponing the vote, the issue is not as divisive as others. “Public safety has never been a partisan issue,” Durrant said.

The vote could be delayed further if a senator asks for another postponement.

If the bill passes through the Senate, it will move to the House where it was sponsored by Representative Timothy J. Toomey, Jr.

—Staff writer Benjamin L. Weintraub can be reached at bweintr@fas.harvard.edu.