Anne Taylor, Harvard's vice president and general counsel, says the public records act does not apply to her police force.

Though HUPD's mandate is public, it is a part of a private organization, and as a result, the University claims an exemption necessary to protect the privacy of its students, she says.

"There's too much unedited stuff in there that could injure people's privacy rights," Taylor says.

In a ruling last year, the Massachusetts Secretary of State's office, which has jurisdiction over matters of public record, agreed, dismissing a HUPD public records request by a Cambridge resident who alleged that Harvard officers were part of a global conspiracy.

Barrios, whose district encompasses part of Harvard, says the University's exemption belies the spirit of Massachusetts open records laws.

"Someone who is deputized as a state police officer or county sheriff is, for all intents and purposes, a public official, and to deny the public access to their records and actions flies in the face of our public records statutes," he says.

Barrios argues that although HUPD is part of a private institution, its officers, as deputy sheriffs and as state police officers, are themselves public officials and therefore subject to open records laws.