Privacy in Pennsylvania for first responders

What protects you in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania protects officer home addresses mainly on the agency side, through its public-records law. It does not have a broker-removal statute like New Jersey's Daniel's Law. That gap matters, so be clear about what each Pennsylvania tool does and does not do.

Right-to-Know Law: Pennsylvania's public-records law (65 P.S. §67.708(b)(6)(i)(C)) exempts the home address of a law enforcement officer or judge from disclosure. When an agency processes a Right-to-Know request, it can withhold or redact your home address from what it releases. That controls what the government hands out. It does nothing about addresses already sold by commercial data brokers.

Criminal endangerment statute: Act 165 of 2022 added 18 Pa.C.S. §2719, "endangerment of public safety official." It makes it a crime to communicate a public safety official's restricted personal information, including a home address, by any means, or to publish it through social media, when the person doing it intends or recklessly disregards that it will be used to threaten, intimidate, or help commit a crime against the official or their family. It is a first-degree misdemeanor, or a second-degree felony if someone is injured. This gives prosecutors a charge when someone weaponizes your address. It is not a takedown tool: it does not let you demand that a data broker remove your information.

Pennsylvania has not adopted a statute that lets covered officers force data brokers to delete their home address the way New Jersey, Colorado, and several other states now do. If that changes, the tools below change with it.

What still leaks

Four sources stay open in Pennsylvania:

1. Court filings. Court records are widely published online through the Unified Judicial System and county docket sites. Civil filings, divorce, and traffic matters can carry your address in the body of the document unless it was redacted at filing. Federal cases on PACER sit outside state protection entirely.
2. Property and tax records. County recorders and assessors publish online. A property transfer moves into the broker pipeline soon after. The Right-to-Know exemption for personnel records does not reach property records.
3. Voter registration. Pennsylvania voter rolls are available to candidates and campaigns, and that data filters downstream into commercial broker feeds. Spokeo, Whitepages, and similar sites scrape from these sources and do not apply Pennsylvania-specific protections.
4. DMV records. Driver and vehicle records are governed by the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act, which limits who can pull them and for what purpose. It does not undo the broker feeds built before those limits, and a plate or registration tied to your home still connects you to that address and to everyone living there.

Laws that work for you here

• Right-to-Know Law §67.708(b)(6)(i)(C): exempts your home address from disclosure, so an agency can withhold or redact it when it responds to a Right-to-Know request.
• 18 Pa.C.S. §2719 (Act 165 of 2022): a criminal charge for anyone who publishes your restricted personal information to threaten or endanger you. Report it to your department and the district attorney. It is a prosecution route, not a way to make brokers take data down.
• Driver's Privacy Protection Act: federal limits on how your DMV license and registration data can be disclosed and used. See DPPA for how to invoke it.
• Address Confidentiality Program: a substitute-address program run by the Pennsylvania Office of Victim Advocate for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, human trafficking, and child abduction. Officers are not eligible just for being officers.

Pennsylvania locals that want to build member privacy into a contract can layer on the union plan.

What we do that the state doesn't

Because Pennsylvania has no broker-removal statute, the broker side is on you unless you hand it off. We do that work. We find where your information is posted, file opt-out and removal requests across the data brokers that carry it, and keep checking, because listings come back. We handle most of the process and tell you clearly when a site needs something only you can provide. Property sales and new court filings tend to trigger fresh listings, so those are worth watching after they happen.

See what's exposed and we will show you where your address is showing up before you decide anything.