Dear Surf City Borough,

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:
Dear Records Custodian,

Under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act (OPRA, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq.), I request body-worn camera (BWC) recordings only related to the Surf City Police Department welfare check response at a residence on North 7th Street, Surf City, NJ, on October 3, 2021 at approximately 4:00 p.m., during which officers located John Enders (87) and Francoise Pitoy (75) deceased.
OCPO
+1

Records requested (please produce up to three clear, non-duplicative items)

Please produce up to three clear, non-duplicative BWC recordings (or the relevant clips/segments from those recordings) showing:

Officers’ initial arrival and approach to the North 7th Street residence (exterior/perimeter);

Welfare-check actions and communications immediately before entry (knocking/announcing, attempts to make contact, brief coordination captured on BWC);

The initial moments of entry/assessment only to the extent it can be provided without depicting any deceased persons or graphic imagery (e.g., entryway actions, immediate radio transmissions, and rapid transition to requesting medical/prosecutor response), as captured on BWC.

Strict limits / exclusions (to keep this narrow and non-graphic)

This request is strictly limited to the single welfare-check response and initial scene control on October 3, 2021. I am not seeking:

Any depiction of deceased persons, injuries, or any graphic crime-scene imagery;

Extended interior walkthroughs, evidence documentation, photography, or crime-scene processing;

Any later interviews/interrogations at a station, prosecutor facilities, jail, or court;

Any third-party surveillance video (RV/camera footage), phone extractions, or investigative/forensic materials.

If the BWC includes both responsive and non-responsive material, please produce only the responsive, non-graphic segments and redact only what is required by law, releasing all reasonably segregable portions.

Format / delivery

Format: Original/native electronic video files (or native exported clips) via download link/portal with any available metadata/timecodes.

Redactions: Only those required by law; please release all reasonably segregable portions.

Fees / special service charge

This is a narrow, non-commercial, public-interest request for a small number of limited BWC clips via electronic delivery. It should not require an “extraordinary expenditure of time and effort” under N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(c), so no special service charge should apply. If you believe any fee or special service charge is necessary, please provide a written estimate and do not proceed without my written approval.

If any portion is denied or withheld, please provide the specific legal basis for each withholding/redaction and identify the withheld record(s) by date/time range and officer/camera identifier where available.

Please confirm receipt and advise if any additional detail is needed to locate these records.

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,

James Lancaster