Dear Mr. Kim:

The Borough of Shrewsbury (“Borough”) records custodian received your Open
Public Records Act (“OPRA”) request on May 29, 2020.  Your OPRA request
seeks the Borough’s Use of Force reports filed by the police department
from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2019.

Attached please find 17 pages of records that the Borough identified as
responsive to your request.   Please note that the enclosed records have
been redacted in accordance with New Jersey law to protect the personal
information of citizens.  Redactions have been made to remove citizen
identities that reflect: 1) Suspects identified but not arrested; and 2)
Information relating to a person’s medical, psychiatric, or psychological
history, treatment, or evaluation.  N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 provides that “a
public agency has a responsibility and an obligation to safeguard from
public access a citizen’s personal information with which it has been
entrusted when disclosure thereof would violate the citizen’s reasonable
expectation of privacy.”  N.J.S.A. 47:1A-9.a allows exemptions from public
access made pursuant to Executive Order of the Governor to apply to OPRA.

Executive Order No. 26 (McGreevey 2002) exempts from disclosure
“information relating to medical, psychiatric or psychological history,
diagnosis, treatment or evaluation.”  See also Rivera v. Office of the
County Prosecutor of the County of Bergen, 2012 WL 3233511 (Law Div. 2012)
(ruling that providing the names of individuals in Use of Force reports
relating to any suicidal or emotionally disturbed person would run afoul
of Executive Order No. 26); Rivera v. Town of West New York, GRC Complaint
No. 2010-208 (February 2013) (upholding exemption of medical information
under Executive Order No. 26).  Moreover, the GRC has held that use of
force reports must be provided in redacted form, except for the names of
subjects not arrested.  See Rivera v. City of Bayonne, GRC Complaint Nos.
2012-49 & 2012-87 (July 2012).

Lastly, please note that in addition to the reasons discussed above, the
identity of the minor suspect on page 11 was also redacted.  See Digital
First Media v. Ewing Twp., 426 N.J. Super. 389 (App. Div. 2020) (ruling
that a minor subject’s name should be deleted from a Use of Force report
prior to releasing same).

Your OPRA request is now deemed answered and closed.   Thank you for your
attention to this matter.

Very truly yours,

Maureen Muttie

Borough Clerk