New Jersey AG takes over Paterson Police Department after death of activist

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office on Monday announced that it has taken full control of the Paterson Police Department, including daily operations and internal affairs investigations, citing a dire lack of public trust in the department.

The unprecedented move comes less than a month after Paterson police killed Najee Seabrooks, a 31-year-old violence intervention activist, who was fatally shot during a mental health crisis.

“Due to a number of events and concerns relating to the Paterson Police Department, there is a crisis of confidence in law enforcement in the City of Paterson,” Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said in a statement. “People throughout Paterson deserve a public safety system that protects and serves all members of its community, just as the members of the Paterson Police Department deserve adequate resources, support, and innovation from their leadership.”

Platkin added that the sweeping change represents a pledge of safety and success to the community.

The state’s third-largest city, Paterson has 157,000 residents, 63% of whom are Hispanic and 25% are Black, according to the latest census data.

Isa Abbassi, the AG office’s current chief of strategic initiatives and a 25-year veteran of the New York City Police Department, will become the officer in charge of the PPD in May, according to the press release. In the interim, several members of the attorney general office’s staff and the Department of Law and Public Safety will carry out the role and daily responsibilities.

In addition to the leadership changes, the office also outlined several key initiatives aimed at improving public safety in the city and throughout the state. The moves include expanding a program into Paterson that would allow an officer trained in crisis intervention to be paired with a mental health screener in response to a mental health or behavioral crisis situation.

The state will also revise its protocol for barricading individuals in a room or space that “pose significant challenges and risks for all involved” as well as create a working group to study and produce policy recommendations for better partnership between law enforcement entities and community-based violence intervention groups.

Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh said he welcomes the intervention from the state attorney general’s office.

“We are eager to review the Attorney General's plan and timeline, as well as to share and build upon the reforms that we have already implemented,” Sayegh said in a statement to Yahoo News. “We will do everything we can to continue to improve our Police Department for the residents of Paterson.”

The shooting

The initiatives seem to address a number of challenges facing the Paterson Police Department, all of which were exacerbated in recent weeks with the killing of Seabrooks.

The March 3 shooting followed a four-hour standoff between Seabrooks and police, according to the Paterson Press. Police had responded to calls of a mentally disturbed person in his home; when they arrived at the scene, Seabrooks had allegedly barricaded himself inside the apartment. After prolonged negotiations, police claim that Seabrooks let officers into his home and charged at them with a knife. According to the state attorney general’s office, two officers fired their weapons at Seabrooks, striking him. He was later pronounced dead at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson.

Seabrooks, who worked with the Paterson Healing Collective (PHC), a group dedicated to providing support for survivors of violence, had contacted members of PHC, but officers refused to let them intervene.

Officials also said they could not deploy their Tasers because Seabrooks had broken pipes in the apartment and started a small fire that left significant amounts of water on the floor, making the use of the electrical device too dangerous.

Paterson police: A troubled history

Earlier this month, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice (NJISJ) and 47 other groups statewide wrote a joint letter to the Department of Justice urging them to launch their own investigation into the PPD, alleging years of “unlawful and unconstitutional conduct.” Advocates cited at least two dozen news reports and past PPD audits in the last decade.

These incidents included the killing of 27-year-old Jameek Lowery, who died in January 2019 after consuming illegal drugs and expressing feelings of paranoia before being repeatedly struck by police officers trying to restrain him on an ambulance gurney. There was also the death of 25-year-old Thelonious McKnight, who was killed in late 2021 while fleeing police.

The PPD takeover isn’t the first time a major city in the state has been overhauled. In 2014, the Newark Police Department was placed under a court-ordered federal monitor after a Justice Department investigation uncovered civil rights abuses and misconduct by Newark officers. Two years later the department was overhauled by a consent decree, which instituted a number of reforms, including training on stops, searches and arrests, as well as bias-free policing. The department remains under the decree through at least this summer. In an apparent sign of progress, no officer from the department fired a single bullet in 2020.

Community members and advocates alike are hopeful that more change will come to the Paterson Police Department as a result of the state attorney general leadership changes. At a press conference on Monday, advocates urged that the officers involved in Seabrook’s killing be fired. Platkin says he is making it his goal to restore confidence in law enforcement in the city.

“This announcement will not quell the strife in the City of Paterson overnight,” Platkin said. “Exercising control over the police department and bringing in nationally recognized police leadership for the department is the first step of a process towards a safer and more just City of Paterson.”

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Cover thumbnail photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: family handout (2)