Rap Sheets of Mass. Cops Stay Private

A recent group of rulings have watered down Massachusetts’s already weak public-records laws. According to the secretary of state’s office, records relating to criminal charges for police can be withheld by police departments. Recently, the Boston Police Department was allowed to withhold the identities of five officers stopped for driving drunk; the Massachusetts State Police withheld a report of an officer who was arrested; the Department of Corrections withheld its log of people in the state prison system. According to the secretary of state, state regulations give officials power over which records can be made public.