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North Bergen Township (Hudson County) NJ Public
Records
Your record request #25-699 has been submitted
successfully.

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North Bergen Township (Hudson County) NJ Public
Records
A message was sent to you regarding record request
#25-699:

Attached please find the response to your request
for records. If you have any questions, please feel
free to contact the POLICE DESK. 201-392-2100

Note

The Township of North Bergen (the “Township”) is in
receipt of your June 27th, 2025, request for
records submitted pursuant to the New Jersey Open
Public Records Act (“OPRA”), N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et
seq., and the common law right of access. Your
request reads:

“Records requested:

Under OPRA/FOIA/Public Records laws, I am
requesting the following documents:

Incident reports including officer narrative
related to shoplifting and theft from 01/08/2025 to
01/14/2025.

If possible, please send the results of the request
electronically to [1][email address].

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,

Ciaran Johnson”

The Township responds:

 “Incident reports…” relating to or concerning the
offense of Shoplifting (2C:20-11) constitute
criminal investigatory records. Additionally, the
offense of Theft, as defined in Title 2C of the New
Jersey Code of Criminal Justice, includes multiple
types of criminal offenses as defined within Title
2C:20-1 through 2C:20-37. By those definitions,
incident reports you requested are exempt from
production pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1, N.J.S.A.
47:1A-1.1 (criminal investigatory records) and/or
N.J.S.A. 47:1A-3 (investigations in progress).  

Additionally, a valid OPRA request must request
specifically identifiable records that does not
require a custodian to research files to determine
which records are responsive. “Incident
reports…related to shoplifting and theft…” is
overly broad, as your request has not established
any relation to records held by, or records related
to, offenses committed within the Township of North
Bergen. Accordingly, your request is denied
pursuant to the following court decisions: MAG
Entm’t, LLC v. Div. of Alcoholic Beverage Control,
375 N.J. Super. 534 (App. Div. 2005), Bent v.
Stafford Police Dept, 381 N.J. Super. 30 (App. Div.
2005), N.J. Builders Ass’n v. N.J. Council on
Affordable Housing, 390 N.J. Super. 166 (App. Div.
2007), and Schuler v. Borough of Bloomsbury, GRC
Complaint No. 2007- 151 (February 2009).

Should you wish to submit a new OPRA request,
please be advised you must define the specific,
identifiable records sought.

You requested the same records under the common
law. Unlike with OPRA, the burden to show that
access to common law public records should be
permitted lies with the requestor. “The common-law
right to access public records depends on three
requirements: (1) the records must be common-law
public documents; (2) the person seeking access
must ‘establish an interest in the subject matter
of the material,’; and (3) the citizen's right to
access ‘must be balanced against the State's
interest in preventing disclosure.” Keddie v.
Rutgers, 148 N.J. 36, 50, 689 A.2d 702, 709 (1997)
(internal citations omitted). You have neither
established that the records you seek are
common-law public documents, identified an interest
in the subject matter of such records, nor set
forth how your need for disclosure outweighs the
State’s clearly expressed, strong public policy
interest in preventing such disclosure.
Accordingly, your request is denied under common
law.

As with any OPRA request, you have the right to
challenge the decision by the Township with regards
to your request. At your option, you may either
institute a proceeding in the Superior Court of New
Jersey or file a complaint with the Government
Records Council (“GRC”) by completing the Denial of
Access Complaint Form. You may contact the GRC by
toll-free telephone at 866-850-0511, by mail at PO
Box 819, Trenton, NJ 08625, by e-mail
at [2][email address] or at their web
site at [3]https://www.nj.gov/grc. The GRC can also
answer other questions about the law. All questions
regarding complaints filed in Superior Court should
be directed to the Court Clerk.

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North Bergen Township (Hudson County) NJ Public
Records
Record request #25-699 has been closed. The closure
reason supplied was:

All records have been released, and your request
has been fulfilled.

If your request for access to a government record
has been denied or unfilled within the seven (7)
business days required by law, you have a right to
challenge the decision by the Township of North
Bergen to deny access. At your option, you may
either institute a proceeding in the Superior Court
of New Jersey or file a complaint with the
Government Records Council (GRC) by completing the
Denial of Access Complaint Form. You may contact
the GRC by toll-free telephone at 866-850-0511, by
mail at P.O. Box 819, Trenton, NJ, 08625, by e-mail
at [1][email address], or at their web site at
[2]www.state.nj.us/grc. The GRC can also answer
other questions about the law. All questions
regarding complaints filed in Superior Court should
be directed to the Court Clerk in your County.

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