Please accept this as my request for government records under both OPRA and the common law right of access. Thank you very much for your commitment to transparent government.

BACKGROUND:

At the outset, please be advised that this request is based on my belief that certain mandatory reports are missing from the Elmer Police Department's website at http://elmerboroughnj.com/Police.html or are otherwise deficient. If the records that I claim to be missing are present on a different website or webpage (perhaps the police department recently changed its website or perhaps the reports are in a place that I didn't check), please inform me of the URL where the "missing" files reside and consider this OPRA request withdrawn.

By way of background, Internal Affairs Policy & Procedures (IAPP) Section 9.11.1 requires the Elmer Police Department to file with the Salem County Prosecutor and to publish on its webpage annual "report[s] summarizing the types of complaints received and the dispositions of those complaints" which reports "should be statistical in nature." Even though the IAPP has been amended from time to time, the Department has been under a duty to publish these reports on its webpage since at least 2020. Notably, beginning in 2022, the summary reports are required to be in the form of the Annual Internal Affairs Summary attached to Appendix K. Prior to 2022, the use of Appendix K was optional.

Also, by way of background, IAPP Section 9.11.2 requires the Elmer Police Department, on or prior to January 31st, to file and publish on its website annual reports collecting instances of "major discipline" imposed during the previous year. Again, although the IAPP has gone through a few amendments, it has been a duty of the Elmer Police Department to publish those major discipline reports on-line, in one form or another, and to file them with the Salem County Prosecutor since at least 2020. Notably, the reports, beginning with the 2022 report, "shall follow the format provided in Appendix L."

I visited the above noted webpage today to read the Department's Internal Affairs reports that are required to be on the webpage by IAPP Section 9.11.1 and 9.11.2. However, the reports that I am requesting below are missing or otherwise deficient. I believe that the Elmer Police Department is in violation of IAPP Section 9.11.1 and 9.11.2 for not having proper versions of these reports on the site.

The object of this request is not to obtain the following records for myself. Rather, it is to gently urge the Elmer Police Department to upload the missing or deficient reports to its website to bring it into compliance with the IAPP and to ensure that these important reports are available to the public. THUS, THE ELMER POLICE DEPARTMENT MAY SATISFY THIS REQUEST BY UPLOADING THE REQUESTED REPORTS TO ITS WEBPAGE OR WEBSITE AND NOTIFYING ME, IN RESPONSE TO THIS OPRA REQUEST, THAT IT HAS DONE SO. If the Elmer Police Department, for whatever reason, is not inclined to upload the reports identified below, please provide them to me in response to this request.

RECORDS REQUESTED:

2020 IA Summary Report
2021 IA Summary Report
2022 IA Summary Report
2020 Major Discipline Report
2021 Major Discipline Report
2022 Major Discipline Report

Note that the text-based 2022 Major Discipline reports that your department has on its website are not in form of Appendix L

--end of request

Dear Ms. Walker:

Thank you.

John Paff

Thank you, Ms. Walker:

John Paff

Dear Ms. Walker:
Thank you. The site, in my view, is fully compliant with the IAPP.
John Paff