From North Jersey: Fair Lawn – Reports by the borough of residents abusing Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests and businesses using OPRA information for profit have prompted State Sen. Bob Gordon to sponsor a bill that would exempt certain personal information from the state’s open public records law.
OPRA is the state statute that governs the public’s right to access government records. It was intended to expand the public’s right of access to government records as well as create an appeals process if access is denied. There are no restrictions on OPRA requests for commercial use and there are no limitations on the number of requests that can be made, according to the Government Records Council, the agency that oversees compliance with OPRA.