IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Philadelphia District Attorney’s :

Office, :

Appellant :

:

v. : No. 1284 C.D. 2016

: Submitted: February 24, 2017

Timothy Cwiek :

BEFORE: HONORABLE P. KEVIN BROBSON, Judge

HONORABLE ANNE E. COVEY, Judge

HONORABLE JOSEPH M. COSGROVE, Judge

OPINION BY JUDGE BROBSON FILED: September 6, 2017

Since October 2009, Timothy Cwiek (Requester)1has made repeated 

requests to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office (DAO) for a copy of 

Computer Assisted Dispatch (CAD)2records pertaining to a vehicle stop initiated 

by Officer Elizabeth (Skala) DiDonato on December 22, 2002. Prior to lodging his 

first Right to Know Law3request with the DAO, Requester had obtained a redacted 

copy of the CAD record for the stop from another source (Redacted CAD). He 

attached the Redacted CAD to his first request, seeking a “more complete version”

from the DAO.

 

1

The Pennsylvania Newsmedia Association (PNA) filed an amicus curiae brief in 

support of Requester’s position. 

2 A CAD system sends to emergency response vehicles electronic messages, which 

include information such as the location of the call, the time the call was initiated, and the type of 

incident. 

3 Act of February 14, 2008, P.L. 6, 65 P.S. §§ 67.101-.3104.
2

The instant appeal concerns Requester’s fourth request to the DAO

relating to the Redacted CAD, coupled with a request that the DAO certify copies 

of responsive records pursuant to Section 904 of the RTKL, 65 P.S. § 67.904, 

which provides: “If an agency’s response grants a request for access, the agency 

shall, upon request, provide the requester with a certified copy of the record if the 

requester pays the applicable fees . . . .” (Emphasis added.) The DAO denied the

request, explaining that it did not have any responsive records. Requester appealed 

to the Office of Open Records (OOR). On August 14, 2015, the OOR issued a 

final determination, denying Requester’s appeal to the extent that it claimed the 

DAO possessed responsive records other than the Redacted CAD, which Requester 

provided to the DAO in his initial October 2009 request and his second request in 

August 2013. The OOR ordered the DAO to provide Requester a certified copy of 

the Redacted CAD under Section 904 of the RTKL.

The DAO appealed to the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia 

County (common pleas). By order dated June 20, 2016, common pleas affirmed 

the decision of the OOR, requiring the DAO to certify the Redacted CAD. 

Common pleas, however, concluded that a February 26, 2015 unsworn declaration 

by then-Chief of the Civil Litigation Unit for the Office (2015 Declaration), “is 

sufficient ‘certification’ for the purposes of this [o]rder.” (Reproduced Record 

(R.R.) at 9a.) The 2015 Declaration provides, in pertinent part:

2. I have searched for any and all Computer 

Assisted Dispatch (“CAD”) records for a 

December 22, 2002 vehicle stop, enumerated in police 

records as D.C. No. 02-06-076378 (“Vehicle Stop 378”), 

which vehicle stop involved Police Officer Elizabeth 

Skala.

3. I have personally searched all civil, 

administrative and criminal files at the DAO that hold 

records pertaining to the homicide of Robert G. Morris, 
3

also known as Nizah Morris, (“the DAO Files”) for these 

materials. My search of the DAO’s Files was done under 

both names.

4. All that I was able to locate in the DAO’s 

Files was a partial CAD record for Vehicle Stop 378. 

That partial record of Vehicle Stop 378 that the DAO has 

is an incomplete record that was provided to the DAO in 

2013 by Timothy Cwiek, through his then[-]counsel. 

That partial record is included at the top of the page 

attached hereto. 

5. I was unable to locate a complete CAD 

record for Vehicle Stop 378 in the DAO’s files or any 

other CAD records relating to Vehicle Stop 378.

(Id. at 24a (emphasis added).)

On appeal to this Court from common pleas’ June 20, 2016 order,4the 

DAO argues that common pleas committed an error of law by requiring it to certify 

the Redacted CAD and by concluding that the 2015 Declaration constituted a 

certification under Section 904 of the RTKL. Specifically, the DAO argues that 

the RTKL does not require it to certify the Redacted CAD because it is not the 

agency that is “the custodian of the original record that documents its own 

activities and business.” (DAO’s Br. at 13.) With respect to the 2015 Declaration, 

the DAO contends that the document was not intended to authenticate the 

Redacted CAD—a photocopy that Requester provided to the DAO. In response, 

Requester, proceeding pro se, focuses mainly on his lingering concerns that the 

 

4

This Court’s review in a statutory appeal is “limited to determining whether findings of 

fact are supported by competent evidence or whether the trial court committed an error of law or 

an abuse of discretion in reaching its decision.” Piasecki v. Dep’t of Transp., Bureau of Driver 

Licensing, 6 A.3d 1067, 1070 n.7 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2010). The scope of review for a question of law 

under the RTKL is plenary. Ali v. Phila. City Planning Comm’n, 125 A.3d 92, 94 n.2 (Pa. 

Cmwlth. 2015).
4

DAO did not perform a “good faith” search for responsive records, particularly for 

a complete CAD record for the vehicle stop at issue. (Requester Br. at 18-25.) 

Although unclear, he appears to be concerned about what a reversal of common 

pleas’ decision would mean with respect to the attestation by the DAO’s 

representative in the 2015 Declaration that the DAO does not have a complete 

CAD record of the vehicle stop in question. In other words, it appears that 

Requester is less concerned about certification of the Redacted CAD under 

Section 904 of the RTKL than he is about the DAO’s “certification” that it has 

conducted an exhaustive search for the complete CAD record without success.5

With respect to Section 904 of the RTKL and the obligation of 

agencies to provide certified copies of responsive records upon request and 

payment of any applicable fee, the RTKL does not define the term “certified copy”

and we find no guidance in binding precedent on what an agency certifies when it 

provides a “certified copy” of a responsive record under the RTKL. In its opinion,

common pleas concluded that “‘certification’ of a document generally indicates 

that the document is true, correct[,] or genuine and, essentially, that the document 

is what it purports to be. . . . With regard to a CAD report, . . . the DAO does not 

generate this record as part of its regular business activities nor does it typically 

have any legal responsibility to retain such [a] document.” (R.R. at 12a.) 

Common pleas went on to reason, however, that because the Philadelphia Police 

Department, which is the entity that would normally create and retain CAD 

 

5 Amicus PNA urges the Court to recognize the mandatory obligation of agencies under 

Section 904 of the RTKL to provide certified copies of responsive records upon request and 

payment of any applicable fees.
5

reports, did not retain a complete copy of the requested CAD report, the DAO 

takes on a responsibility to certify the authenticity of the record. We disagree.

On its official website, the OOR interprets the term “certified copies” 

as follows:

While the RTKL does not define the term “certified 

copies,” the OOR interprets the term to mean copies of 

records that are self-authenticating documents under the 

Pennsylvania Rules of Evidence. See Pa. R.E. Rule 902 

(relating to evidence that is self-authenticating); 42 Pa. 

C.S. § 6104 (relating to the effect of official records). 

Self-authenticating means that the party submitting the 

certified copies of records during a trial does not have to 

present witnesses testifying that the records presented 

are, in fact, true and correct copies of agency records. 

The Pennsylvania Rules of Evidence and the Judicial 

Code provide steps that an agency must [] follow[] in 

order to certify copies of its records. See Pa. R.E. Rule 

902 (relating to evidence that is self-authenticating); 

42 Pa. C.S. § 6103 (relating to proof of official records).

(OOR, Certification Form Explanation.

6

) Pennsylvania Rule of Evidence 902(4) 

provides that copies of public records are self-authenticating if certified by the 

records custodian or another person so authorized. Pa. R.E. 902(4); see PHH 

Mortg. Corp. v. Powell, 100 A.3d 611, 619 (Pa. Super. 2014) (explaining that

self-authenticating record is treated as if it had been “properly authenticated by 

laying a foundation sufficient to show that it is a fair and accurate representation of 

what it is purported to depict, including by testimony from a witness who has 

knowledge of what the evidence is proclaimed to be.”); see also Adams Outdoor 

Advertising, Ltd. v. Dep’t of Transp., 860 A.2d 600, 607 n.10 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2004), 

 

6 Available at http://www.openrecords.pa.gov/documents/RTKL/FormCertification.pdf, 

last visited May 17, 2017. 
6

appeal denied, 887 A.2d 1242 (Pa. 2005) (noting that document under official seal 

need not be otherwise authenticated). Section 6103 of the Judicial Code, 42 Pa. 

C.S. § 6103, provides: “An official record kept within this Commonwealth by any 

. . . government unit . . . may be evidenced by . . . a copy attested by the officer 

having the legal custody of the record, or by that officer’s deputy, and 

accompanied by a certificate that the officer has the custody.” 42 Pa. C.S. § 6103; 

see Rawson v. Dep’t of Transp., Bureau of Driver Licensing, 99 A.3d 143, 150 (Pa. 

Cmwlth. 2014) (holding that Department of Transportation meets burden for 

license suspension “by submitting into evidence certified record of conviction 

demonstrating the offense underlying the conviction.”)

Consistent with Pennsylvania courts’ interpretation of Pa. 

R.E. 902(4)(e) and Section 6103 of the Judicial Code and considering OOR’s 

informal interpretation of Section 904 of the RTKL on its website, we conclude 

that a “certified copy” of a responsive record under the RTKL is more than simply 

the agency’s records officer’s attestation that he or she has made a true and correct 

copy of a document in an agency’s possession. Instead, it verifies the authenticity 

of the document for purposes of admitting the record as evidence during pending 

or future litigation. See Butler v. Dauphin Cnty. District Attorney’s Office, 

163 A.3d 1139, 1145 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2017) (“This RTKL certification is equivalent 

to certifying copies for admission into evidence; stated differently, the agency is 

certifying as to the authenticity of the copies being provided.”). Our review of the 

2015 Declaration compels us to conclude that the document does not include any 

language that meets this standard for certification. Accordingly, we reverse that 

portion of the common pleas’ decision holding that the 2015 Declaration was 

adequate for purposes of compliance with Section 904 of the RTKL.
7

Addressing Requester’s concerns, we note that the above conclusion 

does not diminish the value of the 2015 Declaration for purposes of Requester’s 

RTKL request. Rather than certify that the Redacted CAD is authentic, the 

purpose and effect of the 2015 Declaration is to affirm, under penalty of perjury, 

that the DAO conducted a good faith search for records responsive to Requester’s 

RTKL request(s) and that other than the Redacted CAD Requester provided to the 

DAO, no other responsive documents exist within the DAO’s possession or 

control. Requester’s suggestions in his brief to the contrary notwithstanding, the 

2015 Declaration clearly provides that the declarant searched for but was 

ultimately unsuccessful in locating a complete CAD record for the vehicle stop in 

question. To the extent that Requester suggests in his brief that the DAO falsified 

the 2015 Declaration or otherwise failed to conduct a proper search pursuant to the 

RTKL, Requester did not raise such arguments before common pleas or the OOR, 

and, thus, those arguments are waived on appeal. See East Stroudsburg Univ. 

Found. v. Office of Open Records, 995 A.2d 496, 501 n.9 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2010), 

appeal denied, 20 A.3d 490 (Pa. 2011). Furthermore, Requester did not 

cross-appeal, arguing that the OOR erred in determining that no other responsive 

records exist and, thus, Requester has likewise waived the issue of whether the 

OOR erred in determining that the Redacted CAD was the only relevant record in 

the DAO’s possession. See id.

Having concluded that the 2015 Declaration is not an adequate 

certification for purposes of Section 904 of the RTKL, we turn to the DAO’s 

contention that both the OOR and common pleas erred in holding that the DAO 

must certify the Redacted CAD under Section 904 of the RTKL. The DAO asserts 

that it cannot certify the Redacted CAD because the DAO did not create the record 
8

and, thus, could not verify the authenticity of the document. Instead, the record is 

something that Requester provided to the DAO though the RTKL process, 

representing it to the DAO as a redacted version of an original and complete 

document that Requester received from another source. We have clearly held that 

the RTKL does not require a Commonwealth agency to create records to answer a 

request or to compile, maintain, format, or organize a record in a manner in which 

the agency does not currently compile, maintain, format, or organize the record. 

Paint Twp. v. Clark, 109 A.3d 796, 805 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2015). Concomitantly, it is 

clearly beyond the requirements set forth in the RTKL to force an agency to 

investigate the authenticity of a document that purportedly originates from a 

separate agency not under its supervision or control and that the agency only 

possesses by virtue of a RTKL request. In short, Section 904 of the RTKL cannot 

be used by a requester to compel Agency 1 to certify the authenticity of 

Agency 2’s record simply by attaching Agency 2’s record to the RTKL request 

addressed to Agency 1.

Like many RTKL disputes, resolving the remaining issue in this case 

requires the Court to consider the threshold question of whether the Redacted CAD 

meets the definition of a “public record” under the RTKL. To establish that

sought-after information is a public record, the requestor must meet a two-part 

test: (1) the information must document a transaction or activity of the agency, 

and (2) the information must be created, received, or retained in connection with 

the activity of the agency. Pa. Office of Atty. Gen. v. Philadelphia Inquirer,

127 A.3d 57, 60-61 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2015) (Philadelphia Inquirer). Here, the 

Redacted CAD purports to document an activity of the Philadelphia Police 

Department, or its officers, but not of the DAO, its agents, or its employees. 
9

Moreover, there is no finding by the OOR, let alone any evidence in the record, to 

support the notion that the DAO possessed the Redacted CAD independently of 

Requester’s RTKL filings. Indeed, the 2015 Declaration provides otherwise.

In what appears to this Court to be a somewhat wasteful exercise, 

however, the OOR compelled the DAO to produce an attachment to Requester’s 

prior RTKL requests in response to Requester’s fourth effort to secure a full and 

complete copy of a CAD record for the disputed vehicle stop on 

December 22, 2002. While, for the reasons set forth above, the Redacted CAD is 

not independently a record of the DAO, it is part of a record of the DAO because it 

is part of two RTKL requests submitted to the DAO—the first on October 1, 2009, 

and the second on August 16, 2013. Both Commonwealth and local agencies have 

a statutory duty to respond to RTKL requests directed to them. Section 901 of the 

RTKL, 65 P.S. § 67.901. Thus, RTKL requests and the responses thereto 

document an activity of an agency and meet the definition of a “public record” 

under the RTKL.

The DAO has not challenged the OOR’s determination that the 

Redacted CAD must be produced by DAO in response to Requester’s fourth 

request. Section 904 of the RTKL requires an agency to provide certified copies of 

responsive records upon request and payment of applicable fees. We, therefore, 

agree with common pleas and the OOR that, upon payment of applicable fees, 

DAO must provide Requester with a certified copy of the Redacted CAD. The 

DAO’s reluctance to certify as authentic the Redacted CAD in isolation, however, 

is well-taken for the reasons explained above. Those reasons, however, cannot 

excuse an agency from complying with Section 904 of the RTKL. Instead, we 

note that the RTKL does not compel an agency to certify a copy of only part of a 
10

record as authentic, particularly where doing so could be misleading or, worse, 

inaccurate. Similarly, we do not read the OOR’s final determination as compelling 

the DAO to provide a misleading or inaccurate certification under Section 904 of 

the RTKL. If the DAO cannot certify as authentic a copy of the Redacted CAD in 

isolation, the DAO may certify a copy of the entire record (or records) of which the 

Redacted CAD is a part—i.e., Requester’s prior RTKL requests.

7

 This context will 

ensure that the certification is not misleading or inaccurate and will satisfy the 

agency’s obligation under Section 904 of the RTKL.

Accordingly, we affirm, in part, and reverse, in part, common pleas’

order. The order is affirmed to the extent that it affirmed the final determination of 

the OOR. The portion of the order in which common pleas held that 

the 2015 Declaration satisfies the certification requirement of Section 904 of the 

RTKL is reversed.

 

 P. KEVIN BROBSON, Judge

 

7 We see no impediment to the DAO’s ability to certify as authentic copies of Requester’s 

prior RTKL requests.
IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Philadelphia District Attorney’s :

Office, :

Appellant :

:

v. : No. 1284 C.D. 2016

:

Timothy Cwiek :

O R D E R

AND NOW, this 6

th day of September, 2017, the order of the Court of 

Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, dated June 20, 2016, is AFFIRMED, in 

part, and REVERSED, in part, in accordance with the attached Opinion. 

 

 P. KEVIN BROBSON, Judge