New Jersey Foundation for Open Government
Shining a light on local government
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On November 6, 2015, the New Jersey Supreme Court agreed to hear Bloomfield Township’s (Essex County) appeal of a May 13, 2015 Appellate Division ruling that required the Township to provide an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requestor with 14 hours of video taken by a stationary camera located on the back of Bloomfield’s municipal Read More …
“Jeter’s lawyer sought the second dash camera video through an Open Public Records Act request… Based on the newly discovered video, the prosecutor’s office dismissed the charges against Jeter and opened an investigation into the officers that resulted in an Essex County grand jury returning an indictment against the officers in January of 2014.” -from Read More …
In New Jersey, police misconduct findings are rarely made public. The WNYC study ranks access to these records in New Jersey as confidential versus many other states where access is either public or limited. See the article for interesting color-coded diagrams showing state by state openness. -NJFOG WNYC News Oct 15, 2015 by Robert Lewis, Read More …
NJFOG’s John Paff is quoted in this article about the secrecy surrounding records concerning the officers who shot Trenton juvenile Radazz Hearns. – NJFOG The Trentonian Oct. 27, 2015 By Isaac Avilucea (full article here, partially re-posted below) Looking to maintain a shroud of secrecy regarding information about three police officers involved in the shooting Read More …
Groups are lining up against the NJ Appellate Division’s Lyndhurst decision that made virtually all criminal records exempt under OPRA. The case is being appealed to the NJ Supreme Court. Also see our post, “Fallout of the Appellate Division’s Lyndhurst Ruling”. -NJFOG American Society of News Editors (ASNE) By ASNE staff 10/06/2015 (Available online here and Read More …