3. 911 tapes.

911 tapes fall within the definition of a "government record" under OPRA. Because 911 tapes are required by law to be made and kept, they do not qualify as a criminal investigatory record under OPRA. 911 tapes do not become cloaked with confidentiality simply because they become part of a criminal investigation. Serrano v. South Brunswick, 358 N.J. Super. 352 (App. Div. 2003). They are subject to the analysis set forth in N.J.S.A. 47:1A-3(a).

In Asbury Park Press v. Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, 374 N.J. Super. 312 (Law Div 2004), the court concluded that the pain family members of the victim who called 911 would suffer upon the release of the call required that it be confidential. Even a redacted version of a transcript, deleting the victim's side of the conversation, would have impermissibly violated the expectation of privacy, because much of what the dispatcher said simply repeated, to obtain confirmation, what the victim had previously said.