NJ attorney general releases 2023 police major discipline report, revealing 539 incidents

State Attorney General Matthew Platkin has released the 2023 major discipline report, enumerating incidents of law enforcement officers across the state who faced reprimand for a litany of violations after probes by presiding internal affairs units.

The report, released Wednesday, lists 539 incidents of major discipline last year across 543 agencies in New Jersey. In 2022, there were 401 major disciplines across 548 agencies. In 2023, 376 agencies in the state did not have discipline that met the criteria.

Initially, annual major discipline reports required all law enforcement agencies to publish lists of officers who were fired, demoted or suspended for more than five days< under a guideline set in 2019 by Platkin's predecessor, Gurbir Grewal.

However, the latest report is the first to include "sustained" violations ― meaning investigators upheld the charge ― that were found to show bias or constituted an intentionally illicit search or seizure, the destruction or mishandling of evidence, domestic abuse, or allegations that the officer lied or withheld information, all regardless of the resulting punishment.

Likewise, the report now includes suspected infractions by officers who resigned or were terminated before investigators completed their probe.

"The information released today reflects our commitment to increasing accountability in policing," Platkin said. "Transparency helps increase confidence in law enforcement, leading to greater public safety."

'Delay is unacceptable'

While Platkin commended the new report and the guideline for a commitment to transparency and accountability, it was the second year in a row that his office released the report months after the data was due to be submitted by each agency on Jan. 31.

"The delay is unacceptable all around," said CJ Griffin, a government transparency attorney who works with The Record/NorthJersey.com. "Why are we getting it six months later?" Noting that the report itself says it was completed June 27, Griffin added: "Why did it take more than a month to post to the public?"

Griffin's complaints are nothing new, nor is the latency of the report. Data from 2022 was not released until May 10, 2023.

As in the previous year, Griffin also held Platkin to task for lackluster summaries included with each entry, which his own guideline mandated must "provide sufficient detail to enable a reader who is not familiar with the case to fully understand the factual scenario that resulted in the disciplinary action."

Although Griffin acknowledged that many more summaries of the officers' conduct met that standard than in the previous year's document, the attorney still found "vague" examples, such as one synopsis of why a Camden County corrections officer received a 15-day suspension for authoring "an inappropriate post on his personal Facebook account" that was deemed "unbecoming" conduct.

"Inappropriate and unbecoming, how?" Griffin asked rhetorically. "Was it racist or sexist? We need the details."

Responding to the criticisms of its timing, the Attorney General's Office said the lag was due to the expanded criteria, requiring more time to examine submissions.

The office "worked with agencies statewide ahead of the reporting deadline to ensure [law enforcement] properly understood the new requirements, and then continued to work with agencies across the state following the reporting deadline" in adding supplemental data, the Attorney General's Office said.

The office further noted that the Jan. 31 deadline is the date by which all agencies must submit their findings to the state, rather than the publication of a final report, which so far appears to have no explicit timeline in any of the updates to the state's Internal Affairs Policies & Procedures.

Infractions by county

Based on the list of infractions by county, few municipal police departments added more than a handful of major disciplines to the 2023 report in and of themselves. Rather, county-run agencies, such as sheriff’s offices and corrections departments, appeared to tally the lion’s share of infractions from any one level of law enforcement.

In 2022, the agency reporting the most disciplines by far was the state Department of Corrections, with 173 issued between June and December of that year. Camden County Corrections ranked second in the 2022 report with 69 disciplines.

Once again, the majority of reports came out of Camden County, where the once-troubled Camden Police Department reported just five major disciplines. Conversely, its Department of Corrections was responsible for 56 reprimands, or 79% of the countywide tally.

Essex County's Corrections Department issued 13 disciplines against its officers last year. Though it was not the most of any agency in the county ― Newark reported 16 ― it represents 25% of all 51 disciplinary findings reported by the 12 agencies operating within county borders.

The Attorney General's Office did not respond to questions about the continued trend of violations from corrections officers.

Data for state-run agencies, such as the New Jersey State Police or the Department of Corrections, are tallied separately, regardless of where an officer's violation was committed or the officer is stationed.

In Passaic County, the Paterson Police Department reported just two major disciplines, the same number as the previous year, while the Sheriff’s Office reported eight. Bergen County's agencies totaled 19 separate disciplines that met this year's criteria, but municipal agencies had only one each, whereas sheriff’s officers were responsible for four.

A further look at the North Jersey counties reveals:

• Bergen County had 15 agencies reporting major discipline, and 55 reported no discipline. Out of 71 total agencies, that is 23% reporting some discipline.

• Essex County had 12 agencies that reported discipline (44% of 27 agencies), and 15 reported no discipline.

• Passaic County had six agencies report discipline (33% of 18 agencies) and 12 with no reported discipline.

• Morris County had eight agencies report discipline (21% of 38 agencies) and 30 with no discipline reports.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ AG 2023 police major discipline report reveals 539 incidents