Do the Attorney General’s Law Enforcement Directives–policies that apply to all police departments throughout the State–establish exemptions under OPRA? Recent case law has answered this question affirmatively; the Attorney General’s directives are legal requirements that serve as a basis for confidentiality of government records.

The impact of these directives on OPRA requests had been somewhat in question because it was unclear whether such policies are binding legal requirements, and therefore should be treated the same as a regulation or other similar enactment. In the Lyndhurst opinion issued a few weeks ago, the Supreme Court settled this question. It held that these directives, issued by the State’s chief law enforcement officer, have “the force of law for police entities” (quoting and agreeing with the Appellate Division’s opinion in O’Shea v. Twp. of W. Milford).

This means that a confidentiality requirement in an Attorney General Directive is an exemption under OPRA. The Appellate Division and the GRC have reached this conclusion. In a March 2017 opinion, Paff v. Bergen County, the Appellate Division upheld the denial of an OPRA request to a sheriff’s office for the names of complainants and the officers who were the targets of the complaints, on the ground that this information must be kept confidential under the Attorney General’s Internal Affairs Guidelines.

The GRC takes the same position. See Reagan v. Camden County Prosecutor (July 25, 2017).