James Lowe v. Massachusetts State Police (SPR 20190460)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords March 12, 2019 SPR19/0460 Michael B Halpin, Esq. Department of State Police 470 Worcester Road Framingham, MA 01702 Dear Attorney Halpin: I have received the petition of James Lowe appealing the nomesponse of the Department of State Police (Department) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 1 OA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Mr. Lowe requested "any investigative documents related to a crash on Interstate 91 in Whately on June 27, 2018, involving a National Ambulance ambulance ... " including, but not limited to, "crash reports, driver citations, diagrams, photographs, videos, and 911 call recordings." Under the Public Records Law and the Access Regulations (Regulations) all requests for public records must be met with a response within 10 business days ofreceipt of the request. G. L. c. 66, § lO(a)-(b). The response may contain, among other things,. an offer to provide records, a fee estimate for provision of the records, or a denial. G. L. c. 66, § lO(b). All records custodians must comply with both the Public Records Law and the Regulations with respect to the timeliness of response. As of the date of this letter, it is my understanding that the Department has not provided Mr. Lowe a response to his request for records. Order Accordingly, the Department is ordered to provide Mr. Lowe with a response to the request, provided in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law, and its Regulations without delay. A copy of any such response must be provided to this office. It is preferable to send an electronic copy of this response to this office at pre@sec.state.ma.us. Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray cc: James Lowe Supervisor of Records 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