In a recent post, I pointed out that in Paff v. Ocean County Prosecutor, the Appellate Division rejected a privacy challenge to the disclosure of a police vehicle video under OPRA, based on the incorrect premise that “[d]rivers and passengers in vehicles operating on public roadways do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in an MVR recording.” In an opinion issued today, in an unrelated case, the Supreme Court confirmed that the appellate panel’s premise is erroneous.

The Supreme Court case, State v. Stein, dealt with discovery in a municipal court DWI prosecution. The Court held that police video recordings of the defendant, whether from a dashcam or made at a police station, must be provided to the defendant in discovery. The Court also stated that a judge may redact any portion of the video that “captures people not relevant to the proceedings and whose privacy rights may be infringed….”

Stein is not an OPRA case, so the Supreme Court did not mention OPRA or the Paff opinion. Still, this case will have a significant impact on future OPRA privacy claims concerning police camera videos. The Supreme Court’s recognition that these videos include people whose privacy rights may be infringed is at odds with the Paff opinion’s belief that no person in a vehicle has a reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to the videos.

However, because Stein is not an OPRA case, for the time being, police video OPRA privacy claims will be governed by the incorrect standard set out in the Paff Appellate Division opinion.