S. Howey v. Boston Public Health Commission (SPR 20201742)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records September 29, 2020 SPR20/1742 Batool Raza, Esq. Assistant General Counsel Office of General Counsel Boston Public Health Commission 1010 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, MA 02118 Dear Attorney Raza: I have received the petition of S. Howey appealing the response of the Boston Public Health Commission (Commission) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, on September 1, 2020, S. Howey requested “all Computer Aided Dispatch Transcripts (CADs), all incident reports, Calls For Service Reports, all incident reports, all reports, all documents, all audio files for 911 calls, all digital files, all log book entries, all 911 documents pertaining to…Commonwealth Ave, Boston from July 16, 2020 to Aug. 31, 2020.” The Commission provided a response on September 17, 2020, indicating they were withholding the responsive pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) under Exemption (a), as well as citing Exemption (c). Unsatisfied with the Commission’s response, S. Howey petitioned this office, and SPR20/1742 was opened as a result. On September 23, 2020, the Commission provided a supplemental response to the requestor addressing this appeal. Whereas the basis of this appeal was opened as a result of the Department’s September 1st response, I will now consider this administrative appeal closed. S. Howey may appeal the substantive nature of the Commission’s subsequent response within ninety days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: S. Howey 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