About Public Records
The Ohio Public Records Act (OPRA) ensures the records kept by the Sylvania Police division follow current Ohio Sunshine laws. The information reported at the initial response to an incident, along with any items received during that initial response, is public record (State ex rel. Myers v. Meyers, Slip Opinion No. 2022-Ohio-1915.). Juvenile records maintained by law enforcement agencies are treated no differently than adult records, including records identifying a juvenile suspect charged with a crime, a juvenile victim or witness.
The OPRA, Chapter II: Requesting Public Records sets out procedures, limits and requirements designed to maximize requester success in obtaining access to public records and to minimize the burden on public offices when possible. When making or responding to a public records request, it is important to be familiar with these statutory provisions to achieve a cooperative, efficient and satisfactory outcome. Keeping this in mind, here are some highlights from the OPRA.
- Any person may make a request & the request must be for our existing records;
- Please be specific as to what you are looking for so our office can reasonably identify responsive records.
- A request does not need to be in writing and your identity is not required, although in most cases knowing these things may assist our office in identifying, locating and delivering the requested records;
- Requestor information is NOT required and the requestor may decline to provide the information even after our office requests it.
Our goal at the Sylvania Police Division Records Unit is to work with a requestor to fulfill a request to the best of our abilities. This may require some negotiation between our office and the requestor. A requestor may inspect or obtain copies; either printed or shared digitally and the requestor may choose to pick-up, have mailed or shared electronically. Our office may charge the requestor the actual cost of copies, DVD(s) or flash drive(s), and may require payment in advance. If the request is for body or dash camera footage, please note those items are best shared digitally via our file-sharing service. The link will be active for thirty (30) days from the completion of the request for the requestor to view and/or download. If this is not an option for the requestor, pre-payment for the DVD(s) or flash drive(s), may be required.
Our Records Unit will provide the record or start communication about a request, in a reasonable amount of time. We will provide an explanation about a request that may take longer.
Some records are not subject to public disclosure under Chapter III of the Ohio Public Records law. An explanation citing legal basis will be provided with the fulfilled record request.
For more information about Ohio’s Public Records law, you may visit www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/Legal/Sunshine-laws.
Records/Lobby open Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for in-person requests.
Records requests may be made online by clicking here or by email: records@sylvaniapolice.com
