A South End resident sued the city and Boston Police Department over their alleged lack of compliance with the state’s public records law, saying that his requests for information around the Mass and Cass drug crisis and other matters have been ignored.

Brian McCarter filed a lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court in late July, alleging that the City of Boston and its police department have skirted public records law, by either providing incomplete responses to his requests for information or not responding at all, even after he appealed to the state’s supervisor of records.

“The City of Boston and the Boston Police Department have engaged in a pattern of delay, compliance refusal, and bad faith in handling requests for public records,” McCarter’s lawsuit states. “This pattern persists despite significant fees and fines being assessed, including a $75,000 fee award and a $7,000 fee award against it in 2023 alone.”

As part of one settlement, the Boston Police Department was required to eliminate its public records backlog within six months of Aug. 1, 2023, or by Feb. 1, 2024; hire, as a new position, an assistant corporation counsel to manage BPD records; and comply with all public records requests from the Lawyers for Civil Rights within the deadlines established under state law, according to the lawsuit.

“The intended net effect of such settlement and other settlements and fee awards was to force compliance with the public records law by the City of Boston,” the lawsuit states. “It appears that the Boston Police Department and the City of Boston have forgotten such requirements again … as it has refused to comply with numerous requests from the plaintiff.”

McCarter has emerged as a community leader in speaking out against the open drug use, dealing and related crime that’s spilled over from the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, commonly known as Mass and Cass, into surrounding neighborhoods, particularly the South End.

His lawsuit centers around six public records requests — including several pertaining to Mass and Cass — that he says weren’t fulfilled as requested, with incomplete information or documents that haven’t been produced by the city well beyond deadlines established under public records law.

In Massachusetts, government agencies must respond to public records requests within 10 days, and if more time is needed, may request an extension not to exceed 25 days for a municipality, or 30 days if the agency or municipality petitions the state’s supervisor of records, per the lawsuit.

McCarter claims that he has initiated more than 21 public records requests to the City of Boston and its agencies in 2025, as of the lawsuit’s July 25 filing. Of those requests, he said fewer than five have been partially fulfilled by the city and its police department, and seven have been denied or ignored, including after the state’s supervisor of records office issued orders to the city.

According to the lawsuit, McCarter said he never received documents related to a shooting that occurred at Chick Fil-A in March, likely referring to an off-duty officer who shot an armed man attempting to stab two people; and was provided with incomplete receipts for Mayor Michelle Wu’s trip to Washington D.C. to testify before a Congressional oversight committee probing sanctuary cities.

He also claims in his lawsuit that he never received requested documents for, in part, “internal policies, manuals or memos (2020-present) defining crime classification thresholds, especially for homicides, shootings, aggravated assaults, robbery and larceny,” since his March 23 filing with the Boston Police Department.

McCarter also has several outstanding requests related to the open-air drug market and homelessness scourge at and around Mass and Cass, of which he’s been particularly outspoken about in recent months as a resident of a hot-spot spillover area in the South End, according to his lawsuit.

He said he never received requested permits for the 727 Massachusetts Avenue shelter over the last 12 months. McCarter said he’s aware of temporary permits that have been issued for the property, despite the city’s insistence that the last issuance was for a gas permit in 2022, and that “no further permits existed,” the lawsuit states.

McCarter said he never received requested information for a list or summary of projects from Jan. 1, 2020 to present that include units designated under the homeless housing set-aside policy, per the lawsuit.

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He claims a lack of compliance for police logs, 911 call information and internal police communications related to drug activity, violence and other crime, and enforcement related to Mass and Cass in specific hot-spot neighborhoods in the South End and Roxbury, the lawsuit states.

McCarter is seeking damages, including attorneys’ fees with his lawsuit. He told the Herald Tuesday he’s racked up “thousands in attorneys’ fees” already, an amount that he expects to increase as litigation drags out.

“Out of pocket till it’s over,” McCarter said.

A fixture at community safety meetings, he said he shares public documents he obtains related to the Mass and Cass crisis online and with neighborhood leaders.

“How can we have an informed discussion about what to do if the city won’t be transparent with the raw data?” McCarter said.

The mayor’s office and Boston Police Department did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment.

Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox and Mayor Michelle Wu confer before a press conference on the Mass and Cass drug crisis in August. A South End resident has sued the city and police over alleged delays and stonewalling in response to public records requests. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald, File)