But while HUPD has many of the powers of a municipal police force, it doesn't play by the same rules as city departments.

Because it claims to be a part of a private organization, HUPD is exempt from Massachusetts open records laws that require most police agencies to make incident reports available to the public and press upon request.

HUPD incident reports involving individual students are delivered daily to the appropriate college officials--their senior tutor or assistant dean of freshmen.

But the department claims the prerogative to refuse to provide the same information to students, press and the general public.

Municipal police departments cannot claim this right. Massachusetts police officers in such departments are considered "public officials," and as a result, internal department records and correspondence must be made available to the public upon request. Incident reports--the narrative of an event by the responding officer--are included.

There are exemptions--documents which describe methods and procedures don't usually have to be disclosed if doing so would harm the ability of police to catch criminals. These reports are only made public when they are entered into the public record as part of a court proceeding.

Public information and records laws were enacted around the country in the mid-'70s as part of an effort to restore public confidence in government after the turbulence of Nixon and the Watergate era.

"The spirit of the open records laws was to preserve the public confidence in government by allowing the public to monitor it," says Jarrett T. Barrios '90, a Massachusetts state representative who represents part of Cambridge.