Dear Mr. Timko,

This email responds to your OPRA request for the following records:

1.) Copies of all official Attorney General or Prosecutor Directives regarding Law Enforcement Officers who are also active practicing attorneys.
2.) All correspondence with departments regarding officers who are also attorneys.
3.) List of law enforcement officers who are practicing attorneys, maintained by the prosecutor's office.

This Office does not have records responsive to Requests 1 or 3. Therefore, requests for those records is denied.

Request 2 is denied because it is not sufficiently definite. An OPRA request "must identify with reasonable clarity those documents that are desired"; OPRA "does not countenance open-ended searches of an agency's files" and is not "intended as a research tool [that] may [be] use[d] to force government officials to identify and siphon useful information." Burke v. Brandes, 429 N.J. Super. 169, 174 (App. Div. 2012) (quoting Bent v. Twp. of Stafford Police Dep't, 381 N.J. Super. 30, 37 (App. Div. 2005), and MAG Entm't v. Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, 375 N.J. Super. 534 (App. Div. 2005)). The request designated as (2) above is unspecified by recipient, time frame, or even subject matter. Attempting to comply with your request would require identification and review of every piece of paper and electronic correspondence ever transmitted between this Office and every police department, and a determination whether any aspect of it "regarded" officers who are attorneys. Such a broad, general request is invalid, as it requires analysis and a judgment assessment by the records custodian. Bent, 381 N.J. Super. at 39-40.

In the event of a clarification or an appeal, this Office reserves the right to raise any other ground for denial not raised in this response. The failure of this Office to assert an exception or privilege at this time does not act as a waiver of any grounds for denial.

Respectfully,

Mary Juliano
Assistant Prosecutor

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