Arrest reports.
Dear Atlantic City,
This is a request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form. Please acknowledge receipt of this message.
Records requested:
Arrest reports involving an Obstruction, Battery and Resisting arrest charges from May 2024 to June 2024
Yours faithfully,
Khaled Shahat.
Good afternoon:
Please be advised, the response to your OPRA request is as follows:
As drafted, your request does not properly identify the specific arrest
reports that you are seeking and is therefore denied as overbroad and
improper.
A party requesting access to a public record under OPRA must specifically
describe the document sought. Bent v. Twp. of Stafford Police Dep't,
Custodian of Records, 381 N.J. Super. 30, 37 (App. Div. 2005); Gannett New
Jersey Partners, LP v. Cty. Of Middlesex, 379 N.J. Super. 205, 213 (App.
Div. 2005); MAG Entm't, LLC v. Div. of Alcoholic Beverage Control, 375
N.J. Super. 534, 546-49 (App. Div. 2005). A proper request under OPRA must
identify with reasonable clarity those documents that are desired. Bent,
381 N.J. Super. at 37; see also Burke v. Ocean Cty., 2013 WL 6169154, at
*3 (App. Div. Nov. 26, 2013) (differentiating a proper OPRA request from
broad civil discovery).
Additionally, OPRA “is not intended as a research tool ... to force
government officials to identify and siphon useful information.” See Bent
v. Twp. of Stafford Police Dep't, Custodian of Records, 381 N.J. Super.
30, 37 (App. Div. 2005) (quoting MAG Entm't, LLC v. Div. of Alcoholic
Beverage Control, 375 N.J. Super. 534, 546-49 (App. Div. 2005). A records
custodian is not required “to conduct research among its records ... and
correlate data from various government records in the custodian's
possession.” Id. To qualify under OPRA, the request must reasonably
identify a record and not generally seek data, information or statistics."
As drafted, your request would require government officials to research or
analyze information to determine responsiveness and/or identify and siphon
information that is not readily searchable, neither of which is required
by OPRA. See MAG Entm’t, LLC
Thank you.
Eddie Lax
Keyboarding Clerk 4
City Clerk’s Office
City of Atlantic City
[1]cid:image001.jpg@01D77E21.AEF596B0 1301 Bacharach Blvd – Room #704
Atlantic City, NJ 08401
(609) 347-5510
Email: [2][email address]
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