New Fees For Cranford Records Requests: See What's Changing

CRANFORD, NJ — A new special service fee will be in place for some records requests in Cranford.

The Township Committee unanimously approved Ordinance 2025-22 on Dec. 2 in response to the continued increase in requests for body-worn camera footage from police.

According to the Township, the level of requests has been creating "a greater burden on the Police Department Records Bureau."

Under the Open Public Records Act, residents can apply for copies of court records, police reports, and more legal documents. While paper copies of documents and photographs have standard costs, records that do not fall under these categories are billed at the actual cost of duplicating the information.

In Cranford, this now equals the hourly rate of the lowest-level employee who is authorized to fulfill the request. For every one hour of footage, it will be assumed that it will take a minimum of three hours to review and redact the material before it is cleared to be sent out.

All footage requests will be assessed at a minimum of three hours of review. Portions of hours will be rounded up to a complete hour.

Subjects of the recording, a parent or legal guardian, an attorney, and heirs will not be charged more than one hour of the hourly rate if the footage is less than twenty minutes long.

Prior to the review, a cost estimate will be provided. If the requestor chooses to accept, they must give the Cranford Police Department a deposit of 50% of the total cost.

The final cost will not be billed at an amount higher than the estimate.

Those who are victims of crimes related to the footage will also not be charged.

The new process will go into effect upon publication on Dec. 11 in the Westfield Leader.

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