[§52D-18]  Request for copy of police report by a surviving immediate family member.  (a)  Each surviving immediate family member of a deceased person for whom law enforcement initiated an investigation shall, upon request, be provided a copy of the closing report prepared by the investigating police department, upon the conclusion of any criminal proceedings related to the incident, the passage of five years after the report has been completed, or the passage of seven years after the underlying incident, whichever occurs first; provided that if the investigation has been reopened in the six months before the request, the investigating police department shall not be required to provide a copy of the report to the family member while the investigation is ongoing; provided further that upon the conclusion of the reopened investigation there shall be no further delay in providing a copy of the report to the requesting family member.

     (b)  The closing report shall be provided via electronic means or in physical paper form, at the requester's preference.

     (c)  All information pertaining to minors and confidential personal information shall be redacted from the closing report when the report is released.

     (d)  This section shall not diminish any right of a surviving immediate family member or any other person to receive a copy of any portion of a police report or any other government record at any other time.

     (e)  For the purposes of this section:

     "Closing report" means the final report or similar summary of the investigation that is prepared by the assigned police detective in the normal course of investigating the incident.

     "Surviving immediate family member" means a person who is a surviving grandparent, parent, sibling, spouse or reciprocal beneficiary, child, or legal guardian of the deceased person. [L 2025, c 17, §2]