![]() ![]() The law enforcement agencies appealed, and a single justice of the Appeals Court stayed On cross motions for summary judgment, a Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the Globe and declared that booking photographs of police officers arrested for alleged crimes and police incident reports involving public officials were not exempt from disclosure under the public records law. In May 2015, the Globe brought suit against the State police, the Boston police department, and the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services (DCJIS), among others (collectively, law enforcement agencies), seeking a judgment declaring that the requested records must be disclosed under the public records law. The Globe appealed all of these denials to the supervisor of records (supervisor) in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, who upheld the law enforcement agencies' decisions in each case. The Boston police department withheld the records on the same grounds as the State police had. In addition, the Globe made a public records request to the Boston police department for, among other things, the names of officers charged with driving under the influence, as well as the related booking photographs and incident reports. The State police denied that request on the same basis. 4, § 7, Twenty-sixth, because they were "specifically or by necessary implication exempted from disclosure by statute." The Globe also requested a police incident report involving an investigation into whether a District Court judge had taken another passenger's watch from a bin at a security checkpoint at Logan International Airport. 6, § 167, and therefore were not "public records," as defined in G. The State police refused to comply with the requests, claiming that the records were "criminal offender record information" (CORI), as defined in G. Following this second incident, a reporter for Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC (Globe), made public records requests to the State police, seeking booking photographs and police incident reports related to the arrests. The State police arrested a Tewksbury police officer for the same offense in August 2014. In the summer of 2012, the State police arrested a Barnstable law enforcement officer for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence. Pauline Quirion for Greater Boston Legal Services & another. Ambrogi for Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association. Segal for American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. The following submitted briefs for amici curiae: Lederman, Assistant Corporation Counsel, for Boston Police Department. Hammond, Assistant Attorney General, also present) for Department of Criminal Justice Information Services & another. The Supreme Judicial Court on its own initiative transferred the case from the Appeals Court.Įlizabeth N. ![]() Wilkins, J., on motions for summary judgment. ĬIVIL ACTION commenced in the Superior Court Department on May 12, 2015. 4, § 7, Twenty-sixth (c), the booking photographs and the police incident reports were not exempt from disclosure under the privacy exemption to the public records law, given that the subjects of the requested records were public officials and the public interests in disclosure substantially outweighed the diminished privacy interests that public officials have in rehabilitation and reintegration furthered by the CORI act. 6, §§ 167-178B (CORI act) further, this court concluded that under G. 66, § 10, as records specifically or by necessary implication exempted from disclosure under the Criminal Offender Record Information Act, G. ![]() 4, § 7, Twenty-sixth (a), booking photographs and police incident reports that a newspaper requested from the State police and from a municipal police department in relation to the arrests of certain police officers, and a police incident report that the newspaper requested from the State police in relation to an investigation of a judge, were not exempt from disclosure under the public records law, G. Municipal Corporations, Police, Public record.
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