Word: commonwealth
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...public record," as that term is defined in G.L. c. 4, § 7, Twenty-sixth. [FN6] That clause, in turn, provides that "[p]ublic records" are those "made or received by any officer or employee of any agency, executive office, department, board, commission, bureau, division or authority of the commonwealth, or of any political subdivision thereof, or of any authority established by the general court to serve a public purpose." G.L. c. 4, § 7, Twenty-sixth. See Hull Mun. Lighting Plant v. Massachusetts Mun. Wholesale Elec. Co., 414 Mass. 609, 614 (1993). This court has construed strictly the scope...
...jurisdiction to establish regulations that bear a rational relation to the statutory purpose"). Such regulations are to "be construed to ensure the public prompt access to all public records in the custody of [S]tate governmental entities and in the custody of governmental entities of political subdivisions of the Commonwealth." 950 Code Mass. Regs. § 32.02. The regulations define "[p]ublic records" in the same manner as G.L. c. 4, § 7, Twenty-sixth. See 950 Code Mass. Regs. § 32.03. Further, a "[g]overnmental [e]ntity" is defined as "any authority established by the General Court to serve...
...private ones. Simply put, Harvard University is a private institution, a fact not challenged by the Crimson. See, e.g., Rice v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, 663 F.2d 336, 337-338 (1st Cir.1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 928 (1982) (Harvard not a public institution and not sufficiently intertwined with Commonwealth to meet "[S]tate action" requirement for 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim); Krohn v. Harvard Law Sch., 552 F.2d 21, 23 (1st Cir.1977) (same). It follows, therefore, that records in the custody of the HUPD, a department within Harvard University, are not "public records" that fall within the ambit...
This court has recognized generally that privately employed security guards engage in functions that are different from those performed by ordinary police officers. Cf. Commonwealth v. Leone, 386 Mass. 329, 335 (1982). "General Laws c. 22C, § 63, does not confer upon campus security staff all the powers of a State police officer appointed pursuant to c. 22C, § 10." Commonwealth v. Mullen, 40 Mass.App.Ct. 404, 407 (1996). Contrast G.L. c. 41, § 99; Commonwealth v. Callahan, 428 Mass. 335, 337 (1998) (G.L. c. 41, § 99, is broad statute permitting Massachusetts cities and towns to requisition special police officers...
...authority to take actions that a private person would not have in similar circumstances. A deputy sheriff may make warrantless arrests for misdemeanors, but only if the misdemeanor involves a breach of the peace, occurs in their presence or view, and continues at the time of arrest. See Commonwealth v. Howe, 405 Mass. 332, 334 (1989); Commonwealth v. Grise, 398 Mass. 247, 251- 252 (1986). The fact that some individual HUPD officers have been appointed deputy sheriffs, or special State police officers, does not transform the HUPD, itself, into an agency of the Commonwealth such that it becomes subject...