The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (SJC) will likely hear a lawsuit in April brought by The Crimson to obtain wider access to Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) records, according to lawyers involved in the case.

Currently, HUPD releases daily crime logs to The Crimson and on its website, in addition to circulating community advisories following important crimes, but HUPD does not release the detailed incident reports on which the daily logs and advisories are based.

“It’s incredibly hard to check the validity of the logs if you don’t have the ability to check the incident reports,” said Amber R. Anderson, The Crimson’s lawyer.

“The log isn’t a sufficient answer to the public’s right to know,” Anderson said.

In the hearing before the SJC, Harvard will likely present an argument that hinges on concern for victim privacy.

“[HUPD] performs many additional functions unique to a college campus that are not related to crime,” said Joe Wrinn, a Harvard spokesman, in a statement.

For example, if a student were injured and called HUPD, HUPD would transport the student to UHS, Wrinn said, adding that a regular police force would not do this.

Wrinn said that reports arising from special functions like this should not be made public due to privacy concerns.

Lauren A.E. Schuker ’06, president of The Crimson, wrote in a e-mail that the paper’s coverage of crimes “has suffered and continues to do so” because of HUPD’s policies.

“We cannot accurately and fully report on incidents ranging from racial profiling to suicide to sexual assault without these records,” Schuker wrote.

A Middlesex Superior Court justice dismissed The Crimson’s suit last year, siding with Harvard’s attorneys. The justice maintained that HUPD officers were private employees and not subject to public records laws.

In the lawsuit, which was initially filed in 2003, The Crimson argued that since HUPD officers are given police powers by the state, the records they create on the job should be public.

The Cambridge Police Department (CPD), whose jurisdiction overlaps with HUPD’s, is subject to public records law and releases incident reports upon request.

The Crimson filed an appeal shortly after the March 2004 dismissal.

Last month, the SJC opted to hear The Crimson’s case directly, bypassing the state appeals court.