Dashboard camera recordings and use-of-force reports generated in connection with the fatal police shooting of a man who led the officers on a high-speed chase through several northern New Jersey communities are public records subject to disclosure, the state Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.
In a unanimous ruling in a case lodged by a newspaper group, the court deemed the video and reports not exempt from disclosure under the state's Open Public Records Act.
The court did rule, however, that reports involving ongoing investigations and witness statements are exempt from OPRA and should remain confidential.
The ruling means that once the North Jersey Media Group receives the use-of-force reports from the police department in Lyndhurst Township, where the shooting occurred, the identities of the two officers who killed the driver, Kashad Ashford, will be released.
"We conclude that the danger to an ongoing investigation would typically weigh against the disclosure of detailed witness statements and investigative reports while the investigation is underway," said Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, writing for the court. "Footage captured by dashboard cameras, however, presents less of a problem."
And because use-of-force reports which detail incidents in which officers use physical force to subdue or, in some cases, kill suspects are required by law to be maintained, they are subject to release under OPRA. The Attorney General's Office has required by directive that local police departments issue use-of-force reports.
"Under the common law the public's powerful interest in disclosure of that information, in the case of a police shooting, eclipses the need for confidentiality once the available, principal witnesses to the shooting have been interviewed," Rabner said.
"Footage of an incident captured by a police dashboard camera can inform the public's strong interest in a police shooting that killed a civilian," he said. "It can do so in a typical case without placing potential witnesses and informants at risk."
The shooting occurred at around 2 a.m. on Sept. 16, 2014. Ashford, 23, of Newark, allegedly had stolen an SUV from a home in North Arlington, and led state and local police on a high-speed chase that ended when Ashford lost control and crashed into a guardrail in Rutherford. During his attempt to escape, he was shot and killed by two Lyndhurst police officers. The shooting was captured on a dashboard recording.
A grand jury declined to indict the two officers.