Training Courses

Basic Public Records Law Certification for MA Public Safety Personnel

Date & Time:
  • November 30, 2026 – December 18, 2026 - 9:00 AM–3:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time)
Location:
Webinar/Zoom
Agency:
Municipal Police Institute

Course Facts

Instructor: Eric Atstupenas, Esquire

Dates: November 30, 2026 - December 18, 2026

Location: Webinar/Zoom

Time: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

Price: $599.00 USD (Early Bird Rate)

Course Overview

This intensive three-week program provides comprehensive training in Massachusetts public records law specifically designed for records access officers and supervisors in public safety agencies. Taught live by the General Counsel of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, the course equips participants with the knowledge and skills to confidently handle public records requests, including complex body-worn camera footage requests, and to defend withholding decisions with authority and precision. Upon completion, graduates will be prepared to manage requests from various sources—media inquiries, commercial requesters, and high-profile incidents—while staying current with evolving case law and regulatory requirements.

THE MODULE NO ONE ELSE TEACHES

Module 14: Body-Worn Camera and Digital Evidence Requests

Footage stored on a vendor's cloud platform constitutes a public record based on control, not location. This module addresses the complex legal and practical challenges that arise when a single video clip contains footage of a victim, a juvenile, a bystander, and an officer—requiring careful segregability analysis, redaction burden assessment, determination of chargeable time, defensible fee estimation, production format selection, and retention schedule compliance. It also covers requests for footage that has already aged out of retention periods. This is the only Massachusetts public records training that comprehensively addresses these issues.

WHAT A GRADUATE CAN DO

  • Justify a withholding that holds by running five checks—authority, target, reason and harm, segregability, and plain language—against every redaction before release.
  • Route non-request documents such as subpoenas, court orders, discovery demands, litigation holds, and preservation letters that arrive at the records access officer's desk.
  • Manage high-pressure situations including officer-involved shootings, media requests, and data brokers filing dozens of requests monthly.
  • Apply current law including Mack v. Bristol DA (2024), the booking-photo and CORI rule, POST-era discipline records, and AI prompts and outputs as records.
  • Create sustainable departmental change through a certified records access officer program that includes written policy, tracking logs, and audit checklists.

BUILT FOR THE ROLE, NOT FOR LAWYERS

  • Taught by MCOPA's General Counsel, providing credibility that most training vendors cannot offer. Eric Atstupenas counsels more than 400 chiefs and their departments.
  • Current as of 2026 and reviewed annually. The case law covered is more recent than that found in most departments' existing policies.
  • Based on real requests and real redactions, with practitioner perspective throughout. Every exemption module includes a drafting loop: model, guided practice, independent work, and critique.
  • Delivered as a live cohort with Wednesday Q&A sessions, a graded discussion forum, three unit assessments, and a cumulative final examination that gates the certificate.
  • No legal background required. Designed specifically for current or soon-to-be records access officers and records supervisors.

COURSE STRUCTURE

Weeks 1–2: Foundations and the Request Lifecycle (Modules 1–7)

Covers the presumption of public access, the role of the records access officer, intake procedures, the ten-day response clock, fee schedules, extensions, appeals, retention, and lawful destruction. Includes guidance on building a comprehensive departmental public records program.

Weeks 2–3: Exemptions and Defensible Withholding (Modules 8–13)

Introduces the Specificity Scorecard framework, then systematically covers every exemption that public safety agencies actually use: exemptions (a), (c), (f), remainder exemptions, attorney-client privilege, and personnel and internal affairs files under post-Mack law.

Week 3: Applied Practice—The Hard Requests (Modules 14–19)

Focuses on body-worn camera requests, subpoenas, media and high-profile incident responses, commercial and serial requesters, ALPR, drones, and AI. Includes hands-on drafting exercises, petition practice, and a capstone project that walks through the entire request lifecycle from intake to production.