Oregon
Oregon Police Reports: How to Get a Crash or Incident Report
Independently fact-checked against primary sources (last audited August 11, 2026). · Law checked current as of August 11, 2026. · 4 primary sources cited on this page. How we verify our legal content
Oregon splits crash-report responsibility more sharply than most states, and there is no single state portal that sells a copy of a police crash report the way Texas, Florida, or California do. A driver's own accident report goes to the DMV, where it is confidential and is not returned to the driver who filed it. A police-generated crash report has to come from whichever local agency investigated.
This guide walks through that split system, Oregon's law enforcement records exemption, and Oregon's body camera disclosure rule, which some statute databases miss entirely because it sits inside a general exemption section rather than a standalone bodycam chapter.
Information last verified on 2026-08-11. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.
How to Get an Oregon Crash Report
Oregon treats a driver's own accident report and a police-generated crash report as two different documents with two different access rules, and neither one runs through a centralized state sales portal.
If you were in a crash meeting Oregon's reporting threshold, injury, death, or more than $2,500 in property damage, you are required to file the Oregon Traffic Accident and Insurance Report, Form 735-32, with DMV within 72 hours, through DMV2U online, by mail, by fax, or in person. Make a copy before you send it. Under ORS 802.220(5), reports filed with the department are confidential to state administrative and enforcement agencies, including law enforcement agencies for investigatory purposes, and DMV's own guidance states that it cannot give you a copy of your report.
That confidentiality is not total, and the same subsection guarantees narrower access that is easy to miss. On request, DMV must disclose to any party involved in the accident, to their personal representative, or to any member of that party's family: the identity of the owner, driver and occupants of a vehicle involved and that vehicle's registration number; the names of any companies insuring the owner or driver; and the names of any witnesses. DMV must also furnish a certificate showing whether a specified accident report has or has not been made, on demand of a person who made or claims to have made one, or on demand of a court.
A police-generated crash report is a separate document, and it does not come from a state portal at all. This research pass did not find or confirm a centralized Oregon State Police or ODOT portal that sells police crash reports, the way Texas's TxDOT CRIS or Florida's crash portal do. Instead, contact the specific local law enforcement agency, city police department, county sheriff, or Oregon State Police, that investigated your crash directly for their records-request process and fee schedule.
DMV's own contact points for the driver-filing side are Customer Assistance at 503-945-5000 (TTY 711), the DMV Crash Reporting Unit at 503-945-5098, or by mail to Accident Reporting Unit, DMV, 1905 Lana Ave NE, Salem, OR 97314.
Talk to a family-law attorney: free case review
Every case has details a formula cannot capture. Get a free, no-obligation review from a family-law attorney.
How to Get an Oregon Incident Report
Oregon's law enforcement records exemption lives at ORS 192.345(3), not at ORS 192.340, which some older references cite; 192.340 is only the Attorney General's duty to maintain a public catalog of exemptions, not the exemption itself. The actual substantive language reads:
Investigatory information compiled for criminal law purposes. The record of an arrest or the report of a crime shall be disclosed unless and only for so long as there is a clear need to delay disclosure in the course of a specific investigation...
That is a disclosure-first standard. The default is that an arrest record or crime report is disclosed, and an agency needs a clear, specific, ongoing investigative reason to delay that disclosure, not a general claim that the matter is under investigation. Requests go to the records unit of the department or sheriff's office that investigated.
Body Camera Footage in Oregon
Oregon is easy to mistake for a state with no bodycam records rule at all, because the provision is not a standalone statute; it is a subsection inside the same general exemption section that covers incident reports, ORS 192.345(40):
Audio or video recordings, whether digital or analog, resulting from a law enforcement officer's operation of a video camera worn upon the officer's person that records the officer's interactions with members of the public while the officer is on duty.
Read the section heading before you read the subsection. ORS 192.345 is captioned "Public records conditionally exempt from disclosure," and its preamble exempts every record in the list "unless the public interest requires disclosure in the particular instance." Oregon bodycam footage is therefore presumptively exempt, and it is released only where the public interest requires disclosure in that particular case. This is a conditional release valve, not an affirmative right of access, and an agency can decline a request that does not clear it.
When a recording is subject to disclosure, three conditions apply. A request must identify the approximate date and time of the incident and be reasonably tailored to include only that material for which a public interest requires disclosure, so a broad ask for everything an officer recorded on a shift will not qualify. A video that is released must be edited beforehand so that the faces of all persons within the recording, including the officer, are unidentifiable. And a recording sealed in a court's record of a court proceeding, or that a court has otherwise ordered not be disclosed, may not be disclosed at all, regardless of whether the other conditions are met.
Keep this provision separate from ORS 133.741, a different statute that governs how Oregon officers must operate their cameras in the first place, not who can get a copy afterward. That statute sets a continuous-recording trigger once an officer has reasonable suspicion or probable cause, requires footage to be kept for a minimum of 180 days and a maximum of 30 months, and bans facial-recognition technology on the footage. Oregon splits the how-recording-must-work question from the who-can-get-a-copy question across these two different statutes; do not conflate them.
For the broader statewide legal landscape, see our Oregon body camera laws page and our general guide to requesting body camera footage.
Related Resources
- Police Reports by State covers the full 50-state picture.
- How to file a police report
- How to read a police report
- How to request body camera footage
- Are police reports public records?
- Oregon body camera laws
- Oregon car accident laws
- Oregon public records laws
- Oregon court records
Disclaimer
This article provides general information about Oregon's police report and body camera access laws. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Fees, portals, and forms change; confirm current details with the relevant state agency or law enforcement agency before relying on them. Consult a licensed Oregon attorney about your specific situation.
Last updated: 2026-08-11. Fees and portals reflect their published status as of August 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a state portal to buy an Oregon crash report?
No confirmed centralized portal exists for police-generated crash reports. Contact the specific local police department, county sheriff, or Oregon State Police that investigated your crash directly.
Can I get a copy of my own accident report from Oregon DMV?
No. Under ORS 802.220(5) the report you file is confidential to state administrative and enforcement agencies, and DMV says it cannot give you a copy back, so keep one before you file. On request, DMV must still tell any party involved in the crash the identity of the owner, driver and occupants, the vehicle registration number, the insurers of the owner or driver, and the names of any witnesses, and must certify whether a report was filed.
What is Oregon's law enforcement records exemption?
ORS 192.345(3), which starts from a presumption of disclosure: an arrest record or crime report must be disclosed unless there is a clear, specific need to delay disclosure during an ongoing investigation.
Does Oregon have a body camera access law?
Not an access right. ORS 192.345(40) sits inside Oregon's conditionally exempt records statute, so bodycam footage is exempt from disclosure unless the public interest requires disclosure in the particular instance, and a request must identify the approximate date and time of the incident and be reasonably tailored to only the material a public interest requires disclosing.
What is the difference between ORS 192.345(40) and ORS 133.741 in Oregon?
ORS 192.345(40) sets the conditional exemption that governs whether and how body camera footage may be disclosed. ORS 133.741 is a separate statute governing when an officer's camera must record and how long footage must be retained.
How long must Oregon law enforcement retain body camera footage?
Under ORS 133.741, a minimum of 180 days and a maximum of 30 months.
Updates
Corrected Oregon's body camera rule to state that ORS 192.345(40) is a conditional exemption requiring a public interest in disclosure and a reasonably tailored request rather than an access right, and replaced the claim that ORS 802.220(5) bars DMV from returning a crash report with the statute's actual confidentiality rule and the crash information DMV must disclose to an involved party on request.
Independently fact-checked against the cited primary sources; governing law re-checked for recent changes
The Law Behind This Article
This article rests on the statutory provisions below, held in our own legal record and retrieved from the official source. Tap a section to read the operative text.
Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 192: Records; Public Reports and Meetings
§ 192.345Public records conditionally exempt from disclosureIn force
192.345 Public records conditionally exempt from disclosure. The following public records are exempt from disclosure under ORS 192.311 to 192.478 unless the public interest requires disclosure in the particular instance: (1) Records of a public body pertaining to litigation to which the public body is a party if the complaint has been filed, or if the complaint has not been filed, if the public body shows that such litigation is reasonably likely to occur. This exemption does not apply to litigation which has been concluded, and nothing in this subsection shall limit any right or opportunity granted by discovery or deposition statutes to a party to litigation or potential litigation. (2) Trade secrets. “Trade secrets,” as used in this section, may include, but are not limited
Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-09-02 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at oregonlegislature.gov
§ 192.340Attorney General catalog of exemptions from disclosureIn force
(1) The Attorney General shall maintain and regularly update a catalog of exemptions created by Oregon statute from the disclosure requirements of ORS 192.311 to 192.478. The catalog must be as comprehensive as reasonably possible and must be freely available to the public in an electronic format that facilitates sorting and searching of the catalog. (2) The catalog required by subsection (1) of this section must include the following information for each exemption: (a) A citation to the Oregon statute or statutes creating the exemption from the disclosure requirements of ORS 192.311 to 192.478; (b) The relevant text of each statute creating the exemption; (c) If the exemption has been construed by a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court or Court of Appeals, a citation to that decision; (d) To the extent that the exemption is specific to a particular public body or particular types of public bodies, a description of the public body or bodies to which the exemption relates; and (e) Additional information as the Attorney General deems appropriate.
Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-07-29 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at oregonlegislature.gov
Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 802: Administrative Provisions
§ 802.220Availability of records; fees authorizedIn force
(1) Except as otherwise provided in this subsection and ORS 802.177, the records the Department of Transportation maintains under ORS 802.200 on vehicles are public records. The records of vehicles registered under ORS 805.060 are not public records and are exempt from public inspection as provided under ORS 181A.220 and are for the confidential use of criminal justice agencies described under ORS 181A.010. The department may charge the fee established under ORS 802.230 for furnishing information under this section concerning a vehicle or its owner. (2) The department may charge the fee established under ORS 802.230 for furnishing to the public information from the records the department maintains under ORS 802.200 concerning driver licenses or driver permits. (3) The records the department keeps under ORS 802.200 on judgments or convictions under ORS 810.375 shall be open to the inspection of any person during reasonable business hours. Nothing in this subsection authorizes the release of personal information as defined in ORS 802.175.
Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-07-29 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at oregonlegislature.gov
Cited in 3 court opinions in our collectionLatest citing opinion in our collection: 1995
Opinions citing this section in our collection:
- Zackheim v. Forbes (Court of Appeals of Oregon 1995, 134 Or. App. 548)“…and injunctive relief challenging the constitutionality of ORS 802.220(7) and ORS 802.224. 1 They…”
- Jordan v. Motor Vehicles Division (Oregon Supreme Court 1989, 308 Or. 433)“…ns; and for public safety aspects of governmental activity. ORS 802.220(1) and (2). ORCP 7 D(4)(a) provides for…”
- State v. Anfield (Oregon Supreme Court 1992, 313 Or. 554)“…his section are subject to release or use as provided under ORS 802.220 and 802.240." (Emphasis supplied.) S…”
Identified automatically from the court opinions citing this section — not a ranking of which case controls.
Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 810: Road Authorities; Courts; Police; Other Enforcement Officials
§ 810.460Officer’s accident report; useIn force
(1) A police officer shall submit a report to the Department of Transportation whenever the officer does any of the following: (a) Investigates a vehicle accident which ORS 811.725 or 822.600 requires to be reported. (b) Prepares a report of an accident investigated at the time and place of the accident or by field interviews with the participants or witnesses. (2) A police officer shall submit a report required by this section to the department within 10 days of the investigation or preparation of the report. (3) Police reports submitted to the department under this section are subject to release or use as provided under ORS 802.240.
Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-07-29 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at oregonlegislature.gov
Cited in 5 court opinions in our collectionLatest citing opinion in our collection: 2025
Opinions citing this section in our collection:
- State v. Watson (Court of Appeals of Oregon 1989, 95 Or. App. 134)“…lice to enter protected areas. For example, the state cites ORS 810.460, which imposes a duty on a police offic…”
- State v. Haney (Court of Appeals of Oregon 2004, 195 Or. App. 273)“…entry was a legitimate administrative search authorized by ORS 810.460, which requires officers at accident sc…”
- State v. Anfield (Oregon Supreme Court 1992, 313 Or. 554)“…person a citation for that offense." (Emphasis supplied.) ORS 810.460 further provides: "(1) A police offic…”
Identified automatically from the court opinions citing this section — not a ranking of which case controls.
Search our full record of US law — 2.1 million sections, every state + federal →
Sources and References
- ORS 810.460 (officer's accident report; submission to ODOT)(oregonlegislature.gov).gov
- Oregon DMV, Accident and Insurance Report page (Form 735-32, DMV2U, ORS 802.220(5) no-copy rule)(oregon.gov).gov
- ORS 192.345(3) (law enforcement investigatory information exemption)(oregonlegislature.gov).gov
- ORS 192.345(40) (body-worn camera recording exemption)(oregonlegislature.gov).gov
- ORS 802.220(5) (DMV accident reports confidential; disclosures DMV must make to an involved party and certificate that a report was filed)(oregonlegislature.gov)