Police reports
Dear Morris County Sheriff's Office,
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-5(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:
Rockaway borough police reports from 3/27/26-4/10/26 including date, incident description, police process, if arrest occurred.
My preferred delivery method for response(s) to this request is by 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,
MH Student
Dear Morris County Sheriff's Office,
Please confirm you have received this request 7 days ago.
More specifically, I am requesting police reports and records in Rockaway Borough on 3/29/26 , 3/30/26 , and 3/31/26.
Yours faithfully,
MH Student
It has been received and is being processed.
Thank you,
Mark Chiarolanza
Confidential Assistant - Public Information
BWCs - OPRA Management
Class II Special Law Enforcement Officer
Administration
Bureau of Law Enforcement
Morris County Sheriff's Office
P.O.Box 900
Morristown, New Jersey 07963-0900
Office 973.285.6819
Email: [email address]
MCSO Website: sheriff.morriscountynj.gov
MCSO Det. Captain (ret.)
This message may contain material which is confidential inter-agency or intra-agency advisory, consultative or deliberative information, or which may be otherwise confidential and/or privileged. Unless you are the intended addressee (or authorized to receive for the intended addressee) you may not use, copy or disclose to anyone the message, material or information contained in the message. If you have received the message in error, please advise the sender by reply e-mail and delete the message. Thank you.
Dear MH Student:
The Morris County Sheriff’s Office (“Sheriff’s Office”) records custodian
received your Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”) and common law request
(“Request”) dated April 10, 2026. The seven business day deadline to
respond to your Request is April 21, 2026. As such, the Sheriff’s Office
is timely responding to your request in accordance with New Jersey law.
Your request seeks the following records:
Records requested:
Rockaway borough police reports from 3/27/26-4/10/26 including date,
incident description, police process, if arrest occurred.
Please note that your request is overly broad, as it fails to identify
with reasonable clarity any particular records sought. OPRA operates to
make identifiable government records “readily accessible for inspection,
copying, or examination.” N.J.S.A. § 47:1A-1. New Jersey courts have
consistently held that OPRA does not countenance open-ended searches of an
agency’s files. MAG Entm’t, LLC v. Div. of ABC, 375 N.J. Super. 534, 549
(App. Div. 2005); New Jersey Builders Ass’n v. New Jersey Council on
Affordable Housing, 390 N.J. Super. 166 (App. Div.), cert. denied, 190
N.J. 394 (2007). Consequently, a proper request under OPRA “must identify
with reasonable clarity those documents that are desired, and a party
cannot satisfy this requirement by simply requesting all of an agency’s
documents.” See e.g., Spectraserv, Inc. v. Middlesex Cty. Utilities Auth.,
416 N.J. Super. 565, 576 (App. Div. 2010); Bent v. Twp. of Stafford Police
Dep’t, 381 N.J. Super. 30, 37 (App. Div. 2005). OPRA requests may not be a
broad generic description of documents that require the custodian to
search the agency’s files and “analyze, compile, and collate” the
requested information. Id.; see also Lagerkvist v. Office of Governor of
State, 443 N.J. Super. 230, 237 (App. Div. 2015) (holding that OPRA does
not convert a custodian into a researcher, which would have been the
effect of the request). Here, your request is clearly deficient as it
seeks various police reports from a certain range of time, and purports to
require the Sheriff’s Office records custodian to conduct research with
respect to same. See Parreott v. Asbury Park School District, GRC
Complaint Nos. 2016-20 & 2016-39 (Sept. 2017) (holding that the portion of
the request seeking “all relevant documents” was invalid because it sought
a class of various records and would have required the records custodian
to conduct research in order to locate responsive records); see also Burke
v. Ocean Cty., 2013 WL 6169154 (App. Div. 2013) (holding that an OPRA
request is not the equivalent of law suit discovery). Accordingly, your
request fails to comport with OPRA’s specificity requirements.
Notwithstanding the invalidity of your request, the Sheriff’s Office
conducted a good faith search and discovered it is not in possession of
any potentially responsive records.
Your OPRA request is now deemed answered and closed. Thank you for your
attention to this matter.
Very truly yours,
Mark Chiarolanza
Confidential Assistant – Public Information
Mark Chiarolanza
Confidential Assistant – Public Information
BWCs – OPRA Management
Class II Special Law Enforcement Officer
Administration
Bureau of Law Enforcement
Morris County Sheriff's Office
P.O.Box 900
Morristown, New Jersey 07963-0900
Office 973.285.6819
Email: [1][email address]
MCSO Website: [2]sheriff.morriscountynj.gov
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MCSO Det. Captain (ret.)
This message may contain material which is confidential inter-agency or
intra-agency advisory, consultative or deliberative information, or which
may be otherwise confidential and/or privileged. Unless you are the
intended addressee (or authorized to receive for the intended addressee)
you may not use, copy or disclose to anyone the message, material or
information contained in the message. If you have received the message in
error, please advise the sender by reply e-mail and delete the message.
Thank you.
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