Attorney General Paula Dow announced the new policy on internal-affairs investigations today after complaints that N.J.'s guidelines were too lax
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New Jersey State Police Colonel Joseph R. Fuentes, Attorney General Paula Dow and Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno at the Diocese of Trenton, Twelfth Annual Celebration of Law Enforcement in April. Attorney General Dow announced new guidelines today that require police to monitor their own activity more vigorously. TRENTON — Law enforcement agencies in the state will have to police themselves much more vigorously under sweeping new rules announced today by Attorney General Paula Dow.
When the new policy on internal affairs investigations takes effect in July, police departments will have to beef up training, publicize summaries of the most serious complaints against their officers, and improve their record-keeping so that cases don’t fall through the cracks.
"It is absolutely critical that law enforcement agencies investigate allegations against officers thoroughly and fairly, and that we provide the public with meaningful data about the complaints made against police agencies and how they are resolved," Dow said.
She added that for police officers to perform effectively, "they need to have the trust and faith of the people they serve."
The changes come after years of complaints that the state’s guidelines were too lax and too poorly enforced. At some departments, police misconduct cases that went unresolved at the end of the year did not resurface the next year in their annual reports. There were also signs that yearly reports were not being scrutinized by prosecutors before they were sent up the chain of command.
One of the toughest critics of those shortcomings, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, last year called on the U.S. Justice Department to place Newark’s police force under federal oversight, in part because it was incorrectly reporting misconduct complaints. Federal officials have examined the ACLU’s petition, but have not yet acted on the request.
The ACLU yesterday welcomed Dow’s revisions, which it helped draft.
"Really, it’s huge because of the changes made and the scope of the changes," said Deborah Jacobs, executive director of ACLU-NJ. "If this policy is successfully implemented it would put New Jersey as a leader of the pack."
A Star-Ledger analysis in September showed that the outcomes of one in 10 police misconduct complaints in Newark from 2000 to 2008 were not reported to the attorney general’s office, as required by state guidelines.
Statewide records from the same period show that of 90,423 complaints recorded, there were only 86,925 dispositions available in public reports.
Dow subsequently convened a task force that included several county prosecutors, two police chiefs and union representatives last fall to draft changes to the state’s policy — which was last revised in 2000.
As a result, more responsibilities were placed on county prosecutors to collect reports of all allegations and all completed investigations.
For police departments, there are new requirements to keep files on individual officers and to monitor any patterns of misconduct. In addition, internal affairs units will have to follow through on complaints even if dismissed by municipal or superior courts.
Wayne Fisher, director of the Rutgers Police Institute who was a member of Dow’s task force, said the changes will lead to more transparency. Although local forces have always been required to report misconduct tallies to prosecutors, he said the new rules will ensure closer scrutiny.
"Where those discrepancies do exist, there will be steps taken to determine what resulted in those discrepancies," Fisher said.
Alex Shalom, a policy counsel with the ACLU-NJ, said the group had wanted Dow to require public reports on all internal affairs cases. The new rules only direct police to publicize summaries of the most serious cases, and officers would not be identified.
Still, Shalom said, the change is substantial.
"When we see the sky doesn’t fall with the disclosure of this information, it might help the police," he said.
By Salvador Rizzo and Chris Megerian/The Star-Ledger