Interview with PrincetonInfo

PRINCETON - I was interviewed by U.S. 1 News, publishers of the website PrincetonInfo this week.

The interview appeared both online and in the website’s print newspapers, which are distributed in the Mercer County region.

From their article:

Anyone who has ever tried to request government records in New Jersey knows that authorities and bureaucracies make the information request process intentionally difficult and inconvenient, to discourage the public from seeking information that is required by law to be public. The OPRAMachine bypasses some of this hassle.

This new tool is clearly a godsend for journalists, and has already been used to good effect. For example, Charlie Kratovil of New Brunswick Today used the OPRAMachine to request payroll records from every town in New Jersey and audited each one to find where towns were violating labor laws.

But Rozzi says the OPRAMachine is also useful for other groups. Average citizens, law firms, and businesspeople have been using the site to file thousands of requests since it launched last year.

Rozzi says people in the real estate, property management, and construction have been using it to research properties they are interested in. “They usually look for open permits or liens on a particular property,” he says. “They will say there’s nothing on this property, or maybe there is something, and they’ll take that information and use it in whatever they end up doing for their clients. They prepare a report making sure it’s clear of liens, almost similar to a title search,” he says.

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