In our public records case, Supreme Judicial Court rules that investigations of police misconduct cannot be withheld on privacy grounds

On Friday, the highest court in Massachusetts issued a decision in our firm’s public records lawsuit, confirming that the privacy exemption of the public records law does not apply to records related to investigations of law enforcement misconduct.

We represent Eric Mack, whose brother Anthony Harden was shot and killed by Fall River police in 2021. Mr. Mack requested records about the investigation of the shooting from the Bristol District Attorney. The DA should have provided these records because the 2020 police accountability bill made it clear that investigations of police misconduct cannot be withheld due to privacy concerns. Yet, the DA refused to release certain records and information, including the names of police officers and other public employees.

This decision from the SJC makes it clear that the DA must release the names of police officers involved in this fatal shooting, and they cannot rely on the privacy exemption of the public records law to conceal information.

Read more about this case from WBUR (SJC rejects bid to restrict records about police misconduct) and the Boston Globe (SJC rules police officers’ names can’t be kept secret from misconduct investigation records on privacy grounds).