Somerville police curtails access to reports

In a sharp change in policy, the Somerville Police Department no longer makes police reports available to the public.

According to Public Information Officer Paul Trant, the department decided to block public access to arrest reports after he learned more the legal requirements. Trant attended a public records class hosted by the Medford Police Department and found that police departments were not required to release detailed reports.

Basic information, such as the name and address of the person being charged and the specific charge, is still available, Trant said, but "[the public] is used to getting more information."

The first problem with the new policy arose when The Somerville Journal requested an arrest report and was denied access. "Most cities and towns have given the newspapers the reports [but] in the course they said that those reports are not public record as defined under the law," Trant said.

Faced with this sudden change in police policy, the Journal filed a Freedom of Information Act Request with the Somerville Police Department on Nov. 4. The Journal now has the right to appeal to the Supervisor of Public Records at the Secretary of State's office's Public Records Division, Trant said.

The Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) also has a policy of releasing limited information to the public. "Generally right now we don't release any names of individuals - victims or arrestees," TUPD Captain Mark Keith said.

Because TUPD is a private department, it is legal for the department to decide how much information to release. "One difference between us and the municipal departments is that we're a private organization, so we consider Tufts Police Department reports University property," Keith said. "We don't just arbitrarily release them or the information in them."

TUPD, however, provides some general information to the public in the form of statistical data rather than individual reports. "There are certain requirements for us to release information...when we have crimes on campus -- we need to release the types and numbers and that general information," Keith said.

The Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) made a similar decision to Somerville's regarding the release of their records last July. Although HUPD spokesman Steven Catalano told TheHarvard Crimson that the move by HUPD was in the interest of student privacy, the Crimson responded by filing a lawsuit against HUPD in an attempt to force them to release detailed crime reports.

The lawsuit is still pending, but Harvard did form a committee of students, administrators, and an outside expert to evaluate the department's privacy policies, according to the Crimson.