NORTHAMPTON – Eighteen University of Massachusetts police officers have filed suits against the university, its police department and various school officials saying the use of surveillance equipment in the UMass police facility has violated their civil rights. The officers, who filed 18 separate complaints Friday, maintain that they were not informed that some of the surveillance equipment in the new facility, which went into use in March 2011, could monitor their personal conversations. The new suits follow one brought last year by UMass police officer Mark Shlosser on behalf of himself and his fellow officers. Shlosser maintained that at least 13 of the 42 video surveillance cameras installed in the new station are capable of recording conversations in various parts of the building, including private conversations between officers. The officers say they did not find out about this until January 2012. They contend that this violates the Massachusetts wiretap statute — which decrees that people must be informed when their conversations are being recorded — as well as their civil rights, and that it constitutes an invasion of their privacy. As a result of Shlosser’s suit, a Hampshire Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction last year barring UMass from recording private conversations in its police station. The complaints name the UMass Board of Trustees, former President Robert L. Caret, former police chiefs Johnny Whitehead and Barbara O’Connor and Deputy Chief Patrick T. Archbald as defendants. In a memo to staff attached to Shlosser’s suit, Archbald insisted that no […]

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