Dear Wildwood Crest 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 Wildwood Crest Police Department locating and taking Ruth DiRienzo-Whitehead into custody on or about April 11, 2023.

Incident details (to help locate the records)

Person: Ruth DiRienzo-Whitehead

Date: On or about April 11, 2023 (exact time unknown)

Event: Initial contact → detention/arrest/custody by Wildwood Crest Police (the custody event only)

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

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

Officers’ initial approach and first contact with DiRienzo-Whitehead;

Identification and verbal commands, if captured;

Detention and arrest/custody (including handcuffing and any on-scene statements captured on BWC);

Any on-scene officer-to-officer communications on BWC necessary to understand the custody event (limited to what is captured on BWC);

Escort and removal/transport from the point of contact to a law-enforcement vehicle and departure from the scene (if captured on BWC).

Strict limits / exclusions (to keep this narrow)

This request is strictly limited to the single Wildwood Crest custody event involving DiRienzo-Whitehead on or about April 11, 2023. I am not seeking:

Any recordings from Cape May Police or the vehicle-in-ocean recovery scene unless Wildwood Crest PD possesses copies as part of its own files;

Any later interviews or statements at a station, prosecutor’s office, jail, or court (including any recorded interview after custody);

Any hospital/medical footage;

Any third-party surveillance/doorbell footage;

Any unrelated calls for service.

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

Date/time window (narrow, clip-based)

April 11, 2023 — limited to the time window covering first contact through custody/transport. If exact times are needed, please use CAD/dispatch timestamps internally to identify the relevant period and provide only those BWC segments.

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 specific 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,

William Bughundy