Boston ignored a Northeastern University blueprint in creating its supersecret police-civilian review board on cop abuses, blowing off the school’s recommendation that the panel publicize its findings on a regular basis.

Northeastern University’s Institute on Race and Justice, which was hired as a consultant by the city, told the city its review board should “provide regular public reports on the integrity of the department’s complaint and use-of-force investigations.”

Boston’s Community Ombudsman Oversight Panel and Complaint Mediation Program has convened 11 times since March, but has refused to discuss any of the seven cases it has reviewed. The three-member board was supposed to publish its findings next month, according to Corporation Counsel William Sinnott.

But yesterday, Sinnott said that report won’t be out until August, some 17 months after the panel was created.

The December 2005 Northeastern study concluded: “We believe that a transparent and open system of review and auditing will go a long way toward improving the accountability of the (Boston Police Department) to the residents of the City.”

The Herald reported Monday that the city’s year-old police-civilian review board, touted as the people’s watchdog on cop abuses, is so shrouded from public view it stands out nationally as among the most secretive panels of its kind.

The public is not invited to the board’s rare meetings, and its activities cannot be monitored because there are no minutes.

Sinnott yesterday defended the board, saying members have yet to decide how much information about individual cases to release to the public.

“There is transparency in the new system,” Sinnott said. “It may not be the transparency that some would like.”

He said the board now has two cases brought directly by civilians that are currently under review. The first seven were picked at random by the BPD’s Internal Affairs division.

The Rev. Shaun O. Harrison, founder and CEO of Dorchester-based street outreach Project Operation Go, said there should be an overhaul of the board that should include parents, young people and members of the clergy.

“For any civilian review board to be successful it needs community input and it need to be open to the public,” Harrison said. “How else can you build trust between law enforcement and the community?”