Salahuddin Ali v. Massachusetts State Police (SPR 20161051)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Shawn A. Williams Supervisor ofR ecords November 29, 2016 SPR16/1051 Sean Farrell Legal Counsel Department of State Police 470 Worcester Road Framingham, MA 01702 Dear Attorney Farrell: I have received a petition from Salahuddin Ali appealing the May 19, 2016 response of the Department of State Police (Department) to a request for public records. In his letter of appeal to this office on November 13,2016, Mr. Ali stated that he was appealing a May 19,2016 letter from Department Legal Counsel Kerry A. Collins to a request for records associated with an incident that occurred in 1993. Please note that the personal status of a person does not afford any greater right of access to records that may otherwise be exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Law. The Public Records Law does not distinguish between requesters. Access to a record requested pursuant to the Public Records Law rests on the content of the record and not the circumstances of the requester. See Bougas v. Chief of Police of Lexington, 371 Mass. 59, 64 (1976). A person seeking a case file associated with a prosecution should contact the Division of Criminal Justice Information Services for further information on obtaining records that may contain Criminal Offender Record Information. To assist Mr. Ali I will provide a copy of this written determination to the parties identified in his petition. This administrative appeal is now closed. cc: Salahuddin Ali One Ashburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 • (617) 727-2832• Fax: (617) 727-5914 sec.state.ma.us/pre • pre@sec.state.ma.us