Delaware Department of Justice
Attorney General Kathy Jennings


Attorney General's Opinions




26-IB19 5/1/26 FOIA Opinion Letter to Lakisha Heath re: New Castle County

Date Posted: Friday, May 1st, 2026

Petitioner alleged that New Castle County improperly denied a request for records related to a sewage backup and flooding incident.

DECIDED: As the County sufficiently demonstrated that the potential litigation exemption applies, no violation of FOIA was found.

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26-IB18 4/22/26 FOIA Opinion Letter to Toja M. Ricketts, Jr. re: the Delaware State Police, Department of Safety and Homeland Security

Date Posted: Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026

Petitioner alleged that the Delaware State Police, Department of Safety and Homeland Security violated FOIA by improperly denying a request for certain records related to a traffic stop.

DECIDED: As the records were appropriately withheld under the pending litigation exemption, no violation of FOIA was found.

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26-IB17 04/17/2026 FOIA Opinion Letter to Andrew Cullen re: Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control

Date Posted: Friday, April 17th, 2026

Petitioner alleged that the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (“DNREC”) failed to: (1) respond to the FOIA request within 15 business days; (2) provide records within a reasonable time; and (3) properly assess fees.

DECIDED: DNREC violated FOIA by failing to provide a good faith estimate of how much additional time was needed to fulfill the FOIA request. However, DNREC did not violate FOIA in its December 4, 2025 response or for the fees charged.

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26-IB16 04/16/2026 FOIA Opinion Letter to Meryem Dede, Esq. re: Delaware State Police

Date Posted: Thursday, April 16th, 2026

Petitioner alleged that the Delaware State Police, Department of Safety and Homeland Security (“DSP”) violated FOIA by failing to demonstrate it appropriately searched for statistics responsive to two portions of the petitioner’s FOIA request.

DECIDED: The DSP violated FOIA by failing to demonstrate through sworn statements that the identified portions of the request for records were appropriately denied.

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26-IB15 04/08/2026 FOIA Opinion Letter to Shyanne Miller re: City of Dover

Date Posted: Wednesday, April 8th, 2026

Petitioner alleged that the City Council of Dover held a rescheduled meeting with less than seven days’ notice and did not give sufficient notice of the revisions to an ordinance item.

DECIDED: Because the notice to reschedule the meeting did not include a sufficient reason for giving less than seven days’ notice of this item, the City was found in violation of FOIA.

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26-IB14 04/08/2026 FOIA Opinion Letter to Shyanne Miller re: City of Dover

Date Posted: Wednesday, April 8th, 2026

Petitioner alleged that the City of Dover’s response to the petitioner’s FOIA request for certain City Council rules was insufficiently vague.

DECIDED: The City did not violate FOIA by providing an unclear response to the request.

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26-IB13 03/26/2026 FOIA Opinion Letter to Maggie Reynolds re: City of Dover

Date Posted: Thursday, March 26th, 2026

Petitioner alleged that the City of Dover violated FOIA when the City provided a supplemental response to a request for City records, as recommended by Attorney General Opinion No. 25-IB59. The petition alleged three claims: (1) the attorney-client privilege was applied in an overly broad manner; (2) the City improperly applied the personnel file exemption to several records; and (3) the City improperly failed to include an affidavit with the privilege log explaining why the records were excluded.

DECIDED: The City did not violate FOIA by withholding records under the attorney-client privilege and personnel file exemption, nor by failing to produce an affidavit with the supplemental records production.  

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26-IB12 03/24/2026 FOIA Opinion Letter to Steven Coleman re: New Castle County

Date Posted: Tuesday, March 24th, 2026

Petitioner alleged that New Castle County violated FOIA in responding to the multi-part request by improperly applying the investigatory files exemption and failing to release segregable nonexempt records, including an October 8, 2025 administrative hearing recording, hearing minutes and summaries, officer assignment and reassignment logs, and warrant-related records.

DECIDED:   The County did not violate FOIA with respect to the four items as alleged in the Petition.  The claim related to the first item of the request, the hearing recording, is moot.  The County also met its burden of demonstrating it provided the records responsive to the second and third items after an adequate search and properly withheld the records sought in the fourth item pursuant to the investigatory files exemption. 

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26-IB11 03/10/2026 FOIA Opinion Letter to Shane Darby re: Delaware Department of Correction

Date Posted: Tuesday, March 10th, 2026

Petitioner alleged that the Delaware Department of Correction violated FOIA by failing to provide a projected completion date or timeframe for fulfilling the request and by conditioning the release of records on prepayment for record retrieval services.

DECIDED: The Department violated FOIA by failing to comply with the statute’s requirements for asserting the need for additional time for this request.  However, the Department did not violate FOIA by stating that prepayment of a cost estimate would be required.  

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26-IB10 02/25/2026 FOIA Opinion Letter to Brenden Moore re: Delaware State Police

Date Posted: Wednesday, February 25th, 2026

Petitioner alleged that the Delaware State Police, Department of Safety and Homeland Security (“DSP”) improperly denied a request for certain traffic incident records.

DECIDED: Because these records are exempt from disclosure under the investigatory files exemption, the DSP did not violate FOIA by denying access to the requested records.

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