The “Glomar” Response to OPRA Requests For Investigation Information

An OPRA request to a law enforcement agency for records of its investigation of a particular person poses a knotty issue where, as is often the case, there has been no public disclosure of whether that individual is under investigation. In that situation, the agency would necessarily seek to protect the confidentiality of the investigation. But a response that the agency’s records are exempt (under, for example, OPRA’s investigatory or privacy exemptions) would reveal the existence of an investigation–a disclosure that itself would harm the affected person’s privacy interest.

FOIA case law solves this problem by permitting agencies to give the so-called Glomar response; this means that the agency tells the requestor that it neither confirms nor denies the existence of the records requested. The Justice Department explains that this response is necessary under FOIA to avoid revealing exempt information, such as whether someone is being investigated.

This concept is not limited to federal law. Recently, the New York Appellate Division held that the Glomar response is proper under New York’s public record law, and upheld the NYPD’s refusal to confirm or deny the existence of investigatory records concerning certain individuals. Matter of Abdur-Rashid.

No New Jersey court has ever addressed the validity of this type of response under OPRA. Nevertheless, the FOIA Glomar approach is a sensible way to avoid harming privacy and investigatory interests, which OPRA seeks to protect, and it ought to be followed in New Jersey.

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