25 Investigates: Boston’s police transparency unit is opaque

BOSTON — The city of Boston’s website that promises data on police complaints, arrests, interactions with youth and use of force is page full of broken links, making information inaccessible to the public, 25 Investigates finds.

We discovered this after starting off on a different story. 25 Investigates frequently files public records requests to get important information to our viewers, provide context to stories, and identify trends.

December 15, 2023, we filed a request with the city of Boston’s Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, or OPAT. 25 Investigates asked OPAT for all complaints it had received about officers and reasons for the disposition of each complaint. Massachusetts state law requires agencies to acknowledge receipt of public records requests with 10 business days and soon after provide a timeline to provide them and cost estimate if applicable.

The OPAT office was established in 2020 under Mayor Marty Walsh as part of a series of changes aimed at police reform.

September 27, 2024, more than 9 months after we filed our public records request, the city directed us to the OPAT website saying all responsive records are available on a dashboard found there.

That’s when we realized the entire OPAT website was littered with dead dashboard links, the site promising transparency is opaque.

If the data behind each dashboard link does exist, you the public, can’t access it. At least not now, nor any of the days we checked over the past three weeks.

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Screenshot of OPAT website dated October 1, 2024

25 Investigates has learned information on the OPAT website has been inaccessible to the public since July.

“All these documents are public documents. All of us should have access to it,” said Urszula Masny-Latos, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild Massachusetts Chapter, a non-profit comprised of volunteer attorneys who have been fighting for better transparency around police records for decades.

“What does this say to the public,” Kavanaugh asked.

“It shows complete disrespect,” said Masny-Latos.

“It’s almost laughable that the city would take almost ten months to reply to a public records request and reply with no documents, but a link to a broken website,” said Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition. “It would be laughable if the need for government transparency, especially around police misconduct wasn’t so important.”

Since September 27th, when the city directed us to the inoperable OPAT dashboard, 25 Investigates has been asking city officials about the OPAT website, how long it’s been broken, when it’s expected to get fixed, and when we can expect the public records we requested last December.

After weeks of back and forth, the city’s records officer, Shawn Williams sent this response on October 16th:

“The Office of Police Accountability and Transparency (OPAT) provided a link to its Dashboard in response to this request. Upon receipt, you notified this office that the link was not operational. OPAT informed me that the dashboard remains down. OPAT is reviewing its records and will provide them to you as soon as possible, hopefully within the next thirty (30) days.”

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said in a written statement “OPAT has recently faced some technical difficulties that have impacted the accessibility of our public dashboards, including those that track police complaints. As the Office’s leadership transition continues, OPAT is working urgently with the City’s IT department to restore full access as soon as possible and remains committed to ensuring transparency, accountability, and access to information for all residents. Our intake of complaints has continued without interruption with OPAT staff effectively tracking and maintaining oversight of police complaints and their dispositions.”

“The way how the system is set up right now shows that there is no transparency,” said Masny-Latos.

“But that’s the state that we’re in when it comes to public records in Massachusetts,” Silverman said. “It’s a state of secrecy where the city can delay their response and have us running in circles looking for the accountability and transparency that we’re entitled to in the first place.”

25 Investigates appealed the city’s response to the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office, which oversees public records violations.

25 Investigates appealed the city’s response to the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office, which oversees public records violations.

The state told us they closed the appeal when the city responded saying it would provide the records we asked in the next 30 days.

25 Investigates will let you know if we get those records we’ve been waiting on since last year.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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