Mass. Gen. Laws » Part I Title VII Chapter 41
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 41, § 98F (2026)

Daily logs; public records; confidentiality of certain entries

✓ current as of July 2026
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Section 98F. Each police department and each college or university to which officers have been appointed pursuant to section 63 of chapter 22C shall make, keep and maintain a daily log, written in a form that can be easily understood, recording, in chronological order, all responses to valid complaints received, crimes reported, the names, addresses of persons arrested and the charges against such persons arrested. All entries in said daily logs shall, unless otherwise provided in law, be public records available without charge to the public during regular business hours and at all other reasonable times; provided, however, that the following entries shall be kept in a separate log and shall not be a public record nor shall such entry be disclosed to the public, or any individual not specified in section 97D: (i) any entry in a log which pertains to a handicapped individual who is physically or mentally incapacitated to the degree that said person is confined to a wheelchair or is bedridden or requires the use of a device designed to provide said person with mobility, (ii) any information concerning responses to reports of domestic violence, rape or sexual assault, (iii) any entry concerning the arrest of a person for assault, assault and battery or violation of a protective order where the victim is a family or household member, as defined in section 1 of chapter 209A, or (iv) any entry concerning the arrest of a person who has not yet reached 18 years of age.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5 cases, 1995–2020 · leading case: Harvard Crimson, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard Coll., 840 N.E.2d 518 (Mass. 2006).
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Harvard Crimson, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard Coll., 840 N.E.2d 518 (Mass. 2006). · cites it 2× “Pursuant to G. L. c. 41, § 98F, “each college or university to which officers have been appointed pursuant to the provisions of [G.”
Wynn Vs. the Associated Press, 2020 NV 70 (Nev. 2020). · cites it 2× “3d at 731-32; see also Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 41, § 98F (West 2006) (providing that "[al II entries in [police department] daily logs shall .”
Tomczak v. Town of Barnstable, 901 F. Supp. 397 (D. Mass. 1995). “See M.G.L. c. 41, § 98F. Tomczak has made no allegation, let alone proffered evidence, that the police disseminated any information other than information accessible to the public as a matter of right.”
Attorney Gen. v. Dist. Attorney for the Plymouth Dist. (Mass. 2020). “"Our review of a motion judge's decision on summary judgment is de novo, because we examine the same record procedures); G. L. c. 41, § 98F (entries regarding juvenile arrests); G.”
Commonwealth v. Holt, 4 Mass. L. Rptr. 539 (Mass. Super. Ct. 1995). “4, §6 [sic] including police daily logs under M.G.L.c. 41, §98F.” The legislative history of CORI also supports the view that public records are excluded from its coverage.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.