And while events such as these generate incident reports, they are also likely to “contain highly personal information,” Wrinn says. “Within the small campus environment, the information contained in an incident report would make it easier for a person’s identity to be either known or assumed by others.”

“When HUPD officers perform their state functions and arrest someone for a crime, that information is fully reported to a state entity and is available for anyone to see,” says HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano. “[But] when HUPD officers perform private functions, often involving the need for medical attention, that information is not disclosed and should not be disclosed.”

But Carter says access to incident reports would also make police more accountable.

“You might get a better sense of how the police have responded and whether they’re doing enough,” Carter says.

Catalano disagrees that this accountability is needed, saying HUPD already meets professional standards.

“This is basically an unanswerable question involving an untenable standard that Carter neither establishes nor enunciates,” Catalano says. “HUPD reflects the professional standards of delivery of safety and security through community policing. This involves knowing their community, caring about its well-being, and responding and following through on criminal and non-criminal incidents appropriately and professionally.”

In the past, Harvard has cited concern for student privacy as the main reason why HUPD and other private campus police forces should be an exception to public records law.

But the bill’s proponents do not find the privacy argument compelling.

“On its face this might sound good, but the flip side is that students get less crime information than members of the greater community,” Carter says.

“I have read through the [proposed] Massachusetts act and there are extensive privacy protections for individuals” he adds. “An individual’s personal, or medical information is not subject to release under the public records law now, as I understand it, or under the pending legislation.”

Carter says that he cannot predict whether or not opposition to the bill will materialize in the legislature, but he says that any that arises will tout the value of protecting victim privacy.

Wolf said even if the bill musters enough support, it won’t be signed into law until the end of the year, at the earliest.

Nevertheless, Carter is confident about the chances of the law’s passage. He says that Security on Campus is generally successful at effecting legal change.

“We’ve been responsible for the passage of over 30 federal and state laws,” he says.

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