Harvard Police Records Are Private. State Supreme Court Rules

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The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the campus police on private universities are not subject to the state’s public records law, even if they are in some instances deputized by state police or county sheriffs. The court rejected a suit by the Harvard Crimson to force the university’s police to make incident reports available. The court noted that state-mandated records kept by Harvard police, including a daily log of incidents and arrests, are public but the paper’s editors said these provide only the barest of detail. (1/18/06)