A group of lawyers is suing the Boston Police Department and the city of Boston for allegedly not releasing public records related to possible police misconduct, and distributing other records after department policy required them to be purged.
The Massachusetts chapter of the National Lawyers Guild filed the lawsuit on Friday, alleging the police and the city have not followed the state's public records laws or their own policies.
Urszula Masny-Latos, executive director of the NLG's Boston chapter, told GBH News that the lawyers are seeking records that could expose police violence directed at peaceful protesters during the Straight Pride Parade in 2019.
"We have body camera footage that shows what happened after force was used on protesters, but we don't have any footage of the force that was used," she said.
In a statement, the group also called into question what it calls the department's "practice of maintaining and disseminating records long after the time they should have been purged."
“They keep documents that are supposed to be purged after 90 days if there's no criminal activity,” Masny-Latos told GBH News.
Last year, the group filed a similar public records request to determine the scope of police surveillance in Boston. So far, it says, only heavily redacted documents have been released.
"It's a pattern that's abusive, that's unlawful and it simply has to change," said attorney David Kelston, a NLG member.
A BPD spokesperson declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
