It’s amazing that during the first 15 years of OPRA’s existence, the courts issued only three precedential opinions on law enforcement records. But it can no longer be said that there’s little precedential law in this area. In the past several months, two important opinions on law enforcement and OPRA have come out, and several other significant law enforcement OPRA cases are about to be decided by the Supreme Court.

Here is a list of recent key law enforcement OPRA cases.

–Gilleran v. Tp. of Bloomfield (Supreme Court): held that building surveillance videos are completely exempt from disclosure.

–North Jersey Media v. Bergen Prosecutor (Appellate Division): held that a law enforcement agency may respond to an OPRA request for records concerning a possible pending investigation by saying it “can neither confirm nor deny the existence of responsive records.”

–Paff v. Ocean County Prosecutor (pending in Supreme Court): whether police vehicle dashcam videos must be disclosed.

-North Jersey Media v. Lyndhurst (pending in Supreme Court): whether various criminal investigatory records must be disclosed.

–Brennan v. Bergen County Prosecutor (pending in Supreme Court): whether OPRA and the common law compel disclosure of the names and addresses of people who successfully bid at an auction held by a prosecutor’s office

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