It’s a bedrock OPRA principle, stated consistently by the courts, that a request must be for a specific record, and cannot require the custodian to conduct research to fulfill the request. For this reason, the Appellate Division recently upheld the denial of a request that sought the “real reason” for the separations of various police officers from employment. Owoh v. Maple Shade Police Department.

The request asked the police department for personnel information that’s not exempt from disclosure under OPRA–the “[n]ames, date of hire, date of separation and reason for separation and salary of
individuals who…[were separated] in the last [five] years from [the] police department.” The department provided the requested information. For the reasons for separation, it properly indicated whether the officer resigned, retired or was terminated.

The requestor objected that this did not show the “real reason” for separation, which might be due to a plea agreement or a conviction. The court rejected this argument, concluding that the department complied with OPRA by giving the requestor the reasons for the officers’ separations.

Regarding the requestor’s interest in finding the so-called “real reasons” for officers’ separations from employment, the court indicated that the custodian was not obligated to try to figure out what records might contain such information. The court emphasized that the request did not identify any specific records that have the “real reasons,” and the custodian was not required to conduct research and analyze the agency’s records to attempt to find this information.