Newark Police Division

New Jersey law gives Newark officers a real removal tool

Search a Newark officer's name and the same profile tends to come back: full name, current address, past addresses going back years, relatives, approximate ages, and the vehicle in the driveway. Brokers like Spokeo, Whitepages, and TruePeopleSearch build those profiles by scraping public records, including the Essex County deed and property filings the county publishes online.

Most departments in the country have no law to force those listings down. Newark officers do. New Jersey's Daniel's Law lets you make data brokers take your home address and unpublished phone number off their sites.

What Daniel's Law does for Newark officers

Daniel's Law came out of a 2020 attack. A man who found federal judge Esther Salas's home address online went to her house and killed her son, Daniel Anderl, and wounded her husband. The law is named for Daniel. It lets a covered person send a data broker written notice to stop publishing their home address and unpublished phone number. The broker then has 10 business days to comply. If it misses that window, the law sets damages of at least $1,000 per violation, plus attorney's fees, and more if the violation was willful.

Covered persons include:

• Active, formerly active, and retired law enforcement officers
• Judges, judicial officers, and prosecutors
• Immediate family members who live in the same household

New Jersey also limits motor-vehicle data. Under NJSA §39:2-3.4, the Motor Vehicle Commission can release the personal information in your registration and license records only for specific permitted purposes, not for open commercial resale. That state limit works alongside the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act (DPPA), which restricts when any state DMV can release your license and registration data. Both allow permitted exceptions that brokers use, so they slow that source rather than close it.

Where the law stands right now: a federal district court rejected a broker's First Amendment challenge to Daniel's Law in 2024 and let the removal claims move forward. Brokers appealed. As of mid-2026 the Third Circuit has heard the case and asked the New Jersey Supreme Court for guidance, and no final appellate ruling has issued. Removals continue in the meantime. If you are relying on the law, confirm its current status before you count on any specific outcome.

What still leaks even with Daniel's Law

Daniel's Law is strong, but it does not close every source.

1. Federal court records. Daniel's Law does not bind the federal courts. If your home address appears in a case on PACER (the federal court records system), removing it runs through a separate federal process.
2. County property records. The deed itself stays a public record. Daniel's Law does not order county recorders to redact the address on filings they publish, though New Jersey offers separate property protections through its address confidentiality program. See /states/new-jersey.
3. Brokers outside the law's reach. A broker with no business in New Jersey, or one based abroad, may ignore a notice. The law reaches any broker that sells data into the state, which covers most national brokers.

Immediate family in your home is covered

Daniel's Law exists because a home address published online led an attacker to a family's front door. That is why the law reaches past the officer to immediate family living in the same household. A broker profile does not list you in isolation. It ties your address to everyone who lives there and often names them by relationship. Filing to remove your listing takes that link down for the household, not just for you, and immediate family in the home can be filed under the same law.

Brokers re-scrape public records on a rolling basis, so a listing you removed can reappear months later. That is one reason to have removals filed and monitored rather than filed once and forgotten.

What we do for Newark PD members

We file Daniel's Law notices for every broker that lists you, and we track each broker's response. Some brokers re-list people later, so we keep checking and file again when you reappear. We handle most of the process for you and tell you clearly when a site needs something only you can provide. If your division's headcount makes per-officer filing impractical, Newark commanders can run broker enforcement across the division through the agency plan at /for-departments.

If the Newark Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 12 or your division wants to offer this as a member benefit, reach out.

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