Let NJ Parents View Body Cam Video Of Child Abuse Report, Court Rules

CHATHAM, NJ — A family who sued to view police body camera footage of a sex abuse allegation involving their special-needs child must be allowed to see the video, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled.

The Chatham Township parents had sued the township and its records custodian to get access of the footage, but were denied by lower courts.

According to court documents, the child's father approached police in 2022 with allegations that an adult family member had sexually abused the child. The father spoke with township police, and the interview was recorded on a body-worn camera.

The parents claimed that the initial police report, which was based on the father's complaint, was "grossly inaccurate and missing significant information." After being informed that the family member would not face charges, the parents wanted a copy of the video to "prove the report was inaccurate" and possibly file an internal affairs report, court records show.

Patch is not naming the family to protect the privacy of the child involved.

The parents filed several Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests for access to the video and the police report. The township did not share that footage, saying that it "would not advance the public interest" to release it.

When the family then sued, township officials claimed they were obligated to protect both the privacy rights of the son and the accused relative, court records show. A trial court and appellate court sided with Chatham Township and its records department, saying that information about someone who has not been arrested or charged should be kept confidential.

In the Supreme Court's ruling, Justice Rachel Wainer Apter said the father is entitled to see the footage because it was of his own interview, and withholding the video "simply does not protect any significant privacy interest."

"Recall that here, the party seeking access to the body worn camera video is not a third party but the subject of the video," she wrote. "And the withheld footage, required by law to be made, is not a recording of the State’s investigation, but a verbatim recording of (the father's) own complaint as he made it to the police."

The decision means that local police departments cannot withhold footage of people who are the subject of body-worn camera videos, with limited exceptions. New Jersey passed a law in 2020 requiring every uniformed officer to wear a body camera, and those recordings are considered government records

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and Partners for Women and Justice all filed briefs in support of the parents.