MOU, schools and police department

Dear Police Department Records Access Officer:

Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, I hereby request the following record:

Memorandums of understanding between your police department and school districts or individual schools in your jurisdiction, including policies that guide practice of School Resource Officers.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,
Joshua Dankoff
Director of Strategic Initiatives
Citizens for Juvenile Justice

Dear Lt Gonzalez,

Thank you for the reply. Concerning your citing exemption B, the document that we requested is mandated to be publicly available. MGL Chapter 71 sec. 37P(e). Specifically,

"(e) Each school shall annually file its final memorandum of understanding and operating procedures with the department of elementary and secondary education. The department of elementary and secondary education shall collect data on the number of mental and social emotional health support personnel and the number of school resource officers employed by each local education agency and shall publish a report of the data on its website. The department shall promulgate rules or regulations necessary to carry out this section."

As such, if this document is something that has to be submitted to the state, it does not seem like it could also be internal and confidential. We have received similar MoUs from all of the other police departments without any issue.

It is my hope that this information changes the Chelsea PD's position on this records request. Please let me know if that is the case.

Thanks,
Josh