Names of police subject to internal affairs complaints are public records, judge rules

The names of police officers who are subject to an internal affairs complaint, as well as the names of complainants, cannot be shielded from the public under the state Open Public Records Law, a state judge has ruled.

In the decision, handed down Thursday, state Superior Court Judge Peter Doyne in Bergen County found the Bergen County Sheriff's Office wrongly redacted the information in records provided to John Paff, a self-proclaimed open government activist.

Doyne rejected arguments raised by the county that the information must be kept confidential under internal affairs guidelines established by the state Attorney General's Office, finding that those guidelines have no bearing on the public records law. Continue>>>
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