Massachusetts police the most secretive in the nation

image credit: Bearing Arms

Massachusetts was once at the forefront of liberty but sadly it's now at the forefront for having some of the most secretive police in the country.

The Mass. State Police are the most secretive department in the country! They make it extremely difficult for the public to access any information.

It normally takes months or longer to respond to FOI requests. Requests for basic documents routinely produce refusals, delayed release, redacted documents or charging thousands of dollars in unjustified fees. Among them, a $42,750 fee for the log of its public records requests and a $62,220 fee for records of crashes involving police cruisers sought by the Boston Globe. A Bay State Examiner reporter was told to pay a $710.50 “non-refundable research fee” to get an estimate of the fee he would have to pay to obtain copies of internal affairs reports. 

The Mass.State Police asked the Bay State Examiner to pay a $710 non-refundable fee—in order for the agency to come up with an estimate for the actual fee to fulfill the records request. (Examiner co-founder Andrew Quemere shared documents with Boston.com showing that the state’s supervisor of public records later ruled the fee invalid, though State Police asked for more than $9,000 to process the originally requested records.)

It will cost you hundreds if not thousands of dollars to find out about police misconduct in Mass.

Reporter Tom Wollack nominated the agency out of “a combination of both my own experience and talking to other people: attorneys, bloggers, and other journalists,” he said. “Everyone I know who has filed a public records request with State Police has a horror story about State Police.”

In January the Mass.State Police released redacted Stingray usage documents which are for all intents and purposes are useless.

Police across the country want to keep Stingray surveillance a secret, the FBI is commanded police to ignore court orders and sabotage criminal cases rather than reveal information about Stingrays.

The Boston police taking a cue from the State Police on how to stall FOI requests, were ordered to stop issuing template FOI rejection notices regarding Stingray usage.

It took the Boston Police a few months to come up with another B.S. argument claiming that revealing Stingray information would make them "essentially useless."

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette concluded:

 “The Massachusetts State Police is a habitual offender – verging on a career criminal – when it comes to breaking a state law intended to ensure government is accountable to the people it serves.”

West Boylston private investigator John M. Lajoie, who recently took the unusual step of filing a misconduct complaint against current state police Chief Legal Counsel Michael B. Halpin over the issue, said in an interview:

 “What really frosts me the most is when the people who are supposed to enforce the law violate the law.”

Massachusetts campus police can carry weapons, make arrests, and use force, just as any city or town officer can. Yet courts have ruled that campus police at private colleges and universities are exempt from the full sweep of the Mass. public records law, which requires government agencies to release most documents upon request, including police reports.

Campus police in Mass. are empowered as “special state police officers,” a category that includes police employed by hospitals and railroads. As of June,2015 there were 1,500 special state police officers in Massachusetts.

"Twenty-one private colleges in Greater Boston have campus police forces. Harvard has 77 sworn officers, followed by Boston University with 67 (plus an additional 29 officers for its medical campus), and MIT with 59 officers. Wheelock College, which has fewer than 1,000 undergraduates, employs a single sworn officer."

Here's another example of police secrecy, Mass. law enforcement agencies claimed they're private mercenaries' and are exempt from FOIA requests. Click here to read more.

In January of this year the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) said it's immune from the disclosure requirements of the Public Records Law because it is not among the types of entities covered by the law. The law names only entities created by the state and its political subdivisions, such as cities and towns, NEMLEC said."

“That claim is wrong,” the Civil Liberties Union responded in its motion asking the Suffolk Superior Court to keep the suit alive. “Controlled by an executive board of police chiefs and substantially funded by taxpayer dollars, NEMLEC possesses equipment and conducts operations that are lawful only when possessed or conducted by public entities. The police officers who participate in NEMLEC operations do so under the color of law, with the full privileges and immunities of a law enforcement agency.”

No one is monitoring police 1033 weapon's acquisitions:

The Mass. State Police are supposed to oversee police militarization in the state. Police departments across the state have been receiving tanks, assault weapons, grenade launchers etc., However they claim they don't know (won't divulge) which police departments have acquired them.

“The State Police clearly haven’t been providing the required oversight, which is just one of many problems with the 1033 program’s implementation in Massachusetts,” Crockford said. “The Department of Defense in past years put the program on hold because of non-compliance with the program’s rules in the states, and it seems like that might need to happen again” said Kade Crockford from the ACLU.

The Mass. State Police want almost $600 to release redacted 1033 documents.

Police departments statewide have taken cues from the State Police and the Boston Police by ignoring redacting or charging HUGE fees for FOI requests.

Mass. public records law is a joke and police openly ignore FOI requests. Under Mass. law police departments can deny public records requests without any consequences.

Secretary of State William Galvin’s office has established the police as the arbiters and censors of arrest records. Galvin’s office ruled that Boston police can withhold the names of police officers accused of committing crimes.

The state’s supervisor of public records, Shawn Williams, recently ruled in favor of the Mass. State Police, finding that police had “the discretion to withhold records”

Recent examples of secretive Massachusetts police departments:

Watertown Police Chief defends SWAT secrecy (2014)

However, we are [currently keeping the records confidential] to protect our officers and our citizens. I would think most people would support us on that," Chief Edward Deveau said.

Quincy Police ignore FOI drone requests (2013)

MIT and Harvard Police denied Aaron Swartz's FOI request (2013)

Harvard and Cambridge Police wanted $200 dollars to release officer emails (2014)

Cambridge Police refuse to release use of deadly force policy (2015)

Somerville Police deny weapons [1033] request. (2013)