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UMass Told To Stop Some Recording At Station

A judge has ordered the University of Massachusetts Amherst to stop all unnecessary recordings in the campus's new police station following complaints from the officers themselves.

UMass police complained that the 32 video security cameras throughout the state-of-the-art building that opened in April can also record private conversations. Their lawyer says the officers' privacy rights are being violated.

"If an employer chooses to videotape or chooses to have an audio of a particular, you gotta let the folks know that," said lawyer Thomas Kinefick, who's representing the officers.

Suspect interviews and bookings are recorded as a matter of procedure.

The university acknowledges a software error and says there should be no problem complying with the order since no unwarranted recording has occurred.

"As far as we can tell, there have been no recordings made, and certainly there was no monitoring of conversations," said UMass spokesman Ed Blaguszewski. "We have no evidence that anything was ever recorded."

With reporting by The Associated Press and the WBUR Newsroom

This program aired on February 23, 2012. The audio for this program is not available.

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