The highest court in Massachusetts is deliberating a lawsuit filed by the Harvard Crimson against Harvard University to force the university's police department to release more detailed crime reports.
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts heard arguments Monday from lawyers representing the student newspaper and from those representing the university.
The Crimson's plea before the state's supreme court is the latest - and perhaps final - stage of its legal battles with Harvard over the release of police records. The newspaper first sued the university in July 2003 to force the release of more detailed crime reports.
The Herald was one of several organizations that signed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the Crimson's lawsuit.
At its heart, the case is about whether the Harvard University Police Department - whose officers are Harvard employees but are deputized and able to make arrests - should be considered a public force, which would require it to follow public record laws, or a private entity, which would give it more leeway for privacy considerations.
Under Massachusetts law, public police agencies are required to release their reports, which include incident details, witness testimony and officer observations. But Harvard officials have argued that the university's police force is not a public agency, freeing it from the requirement.
Harvard's police department already releases police logs containing brief descriptions of incidents and more detailed reports for incidents in which Harvard officers make an arrest.
But the Crimson argued that releasing reports only when an arrest is made is not sufficient.
Frances Cohen, a lawyer representing the Crimson, told the court Monday that Harvard's current policy limits the Crimson's investigative abilities, according to the newspaper's own report. Harvard needs to release more records for the newspaper to be able to examine the possibility of racial profiling by Harvard officers or the incidence of sexual assault on campus, the Crimson said.
But Harvard officials maintain that the current policy is designed to respect student privacy.
The university said in a statement, "Most interactions with the Harvard University Police Department have nothing to do with the enforcement of the criminal laws but instead involve confidential matters ... that should not be available to the general public."
Joe Wrinn, Harvard's director of news and public affairs, told The Herald that the university's police force is a "different kind of police force" because it has two roles. It opens its records when it acts like a state police force, such as by making an arrest, he said, but it prioritizes student privacy when it acts like a private agency protecting Harvard students, such as by responding to medical emergencies.
The Crimson's president did not return a phone call and e-mail Wednesday seeking comment.
If the state supreme court rules against the Crimson's suit, the newspaper's only recourse will be to lobby the state legislature to modify public records law to specifically include campus police forces.
Legislative change is not out of the question - a state senator from Cambridge introduced a bill last year to require campus police departments to release their records.
