In a recent editorial, the Law Journal Editorial Board opined that police dash camera and body camera videos should be subject to mandatory disclosure under the state’s Open Public Records Act (OPRA), and that our Supreme Court thus erred when it ruled that videos made during criminal investigations are exempt from OPRA disclosure. As a former chief counsel to the New Jersey Attorney General, I respectfully disagree.
Paff v. Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office concerned the recording of a specific police encounter that had made the news, but the case had much broader implications. The real question before the court was whether anyone, for any reason, can demand any police body or dash camera footage—or many hours of it—just because a police chief or other executive ordered the recording to be made.
