email(s) sent on May 28, 2024
Dear Town of Dover,
Please accept this electronic request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form or use a particular software platform to submit my request per NJSA 47:1A-6(f), which states that an email from a requestor including all of the information required on the adopted form shall suffice in place of a completed form as a valid government record request.
I HAVE NOT been convicted of any indictable offense under the laws of New Jersey, any other state, or the United States.
I WILL NOT use the requested government records for a commercial purpose.
I AM NOT seeking records in connection with a legal proceeding.
Records requested:
I am requesting copies of any email(s) sent on May 28, 2024, from any representative of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office to any Town of Dover employee, official, or department that reference or contain the terms “body worn camera,” “body worn cameras,” or “surveillance video” in either the subject line or body of the email.
This request is limited solely to emails sent on May 28, 2024.
My preferred delivery method for response(s) to this request is by E-mail as attachments. Please confirm you have received this request. If you are not the custodian of records, please forward my request to that person and provide their email address to me for future reference.
Yours faithfully,
Giselle Santos
Good Morning,
You submitted an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) Request Form to the Town of Dover which was received by the Municipal Clerk on 2/27/2026. Pursuant to the Act, the Town has 7 business days, beginning the day after receipt of the request by the Records Custodian, within which to respond. As such, the seven (7) business day deadline to respond to your request is 3/9/2026. Please accept this email as the Town’s response to your request.
Your request sought access to the following:
• Copies of any email(s) sent on May 28, 2024, from any representative of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office to any Town of Dover employee, official, or department that reference or contain the terms “body worn camera,” “body worn cameras,” or “surveillance video” in either the subject line or body of the email.
Please be advised that your request is overbroad under OPRA and denied as submitted as it fails to adequately identify specific records, as required under OPRA. (A valid OPRA request must “identify with . . . specificity or particularity the government records sought”); Shipyard Assoc.’s v. City of Hoboken, 2015 WL 10352982, *5 (App. Div. Sept. 15, 2015) (finding use of “any and all” and “not limited to” improper under OPRA); see also Elcavage v. W. Milford Twp., GRC Complaint No. 2006-64 (May 2008) (“Because OPRA does not require custodians to research files to discern which records may be responsive to a request, the Custodian had no legal duty to conduct research to locate records potentially responsive to the Complainant’s request.”).
As it relates to emails, you must provide the sender of the email, the subject matter of the email, recipient of email and a timeframe. I understand you provided a timeframe, a subject matter, however, you failed to identify a specific sender and a specific recipient. Please resubmit your request providing all of the information.
This request is now deemed complete and closed.
Thank you,
Tara M. Pettoni, RMC, CPM, CMC
Municipal Clerk
Town of Dover
37 North Sussex Street
Dover, NJ 07801
(973) 366-2200 ext. 1128
Dear Tara Pettoni,
I am in receipt of your denial dated February 27, 2026, regarding my request for emails sent on May 28, 2024. While the Town asserts the request is overbroad, I note that the request is limited to a single calendar day and contains specific keyword identifiers, which generally satisfies the requirements of Burnett v. County of Bergen.
To resolve the "specificity" concerns raised in your denial and to assist the Town in fulfilling this request without "research," I am providing the following specific search parameters for the date May 28, 2024:
• Primary Individual to Search: Please search the email records (sent and received) of Kayla Wrigley ([email address]).
• Additional Departments/Officials: In addition to the above individual, please search the email accounts of the Chief of Police, the Town Business Administrator, and the Municipal Clerk.
• Sender Criteria: Any emails from the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office (including any address ending in the domain @co.morris.nj.us).
• Keywords: “body worn camera,” “body worn cameras,” or “surveillance video.”
By narrowing the recipients to these specific officials and identifying the sender by their agency domain for a 24-hour period, this request constitutes a specific search of the email server rather than an open-ended research project.
Please confirm receipt of this clarified request. As this is a clarification of the original filing, I look forward to a response within the statutory seven (7) business days.
Yours faithfully,
Giselle Santos
Good Afternoon,
You submitted an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) Request Form to the Town of Dover which was received by the Municipal Clerk on 2/27/2026. Pursuant to the Act, the Town has 7 business days, beginning the day after receipt of the request by the Records Custodian, within which to respond. As such, the seven (7) business day deadline to respond to your request is 3/10/2026. Please accept this email as the Town’s response to your request.
Your request sought access to the following:
• Copies of any email(s) sent on May 28, 2024, from any representative of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office to any Town of Dover employee, official, or department that reference or contain the terms “body worn camera,” “body worn cameras,” or “surveillance video” in either the subject line or body of the email.
• Primary Individual to Search: Please search the email records (sent and received) of Kayla Wrigley ([email address]).
• Additional Departments/Officials: In addition to the above individual, please search the email accounts of the Chief of Police, the Town Business Administrator, and the Municipal Clerk.
• Sender Criteria: Any emails from the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office (including any address ending in the domain @co.morris.nj.us).
• Keywords: “body worn camera,” “body worn cameras,” or “surveillance video.”
Attached, please find the records that to the best of my knowledge are believed to be responsive to your request. Redactions have been made to personal email addresses pursuant to N.J.S.A 47:1A-5.
There are no other records responsive to your OPRA Request. This request is now deemed complete and closed.
Thank you,
Tara M. Pettoni, RMC, CPM, CMC
Municipal Clerk
Town of Dover
37 North Sussex Street
Dover, NJ 07801
(973) 366-2200 ext. 1128