New Jersey’s attorney general released a report on Wednesday detailing major disciplinary cases against 460 law enforcement officers last year. Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement that the report reflects his office’s increased commitment to accountability in policing.
“Increased transparency helps increase confidence in law enforcement, leading to greater public safety,” he wrote.
There were 538 incidents of “major” discipline involving 460 different law enforcement officers from 167 agencies, according to the report. “Major discipline” is defined as terminations, reductions in rank or suspensions longer than five days, according to the attorney general’s office.
Platkin ordered the release of the information in 2022. He said at the time that he wanted to expand the definition of “major discipline” and require law enforcement agencies to include more detail about officer misconduct.
One violation last year involved an officer in Newark who was photographed sleeping in a marked police car while wearing her uniform. She was suspended for eight days, according to the report.
In another Newark case, an officer “mistakenly removed a civilian from a car suspecting it was stolen, only to later discover that the vehicle was not stolen,” the report said. That officer was suspended for 15 days.
In Elizabeth, one officer wrote in a report last year that he “might have possibly picked up a license plate” during a car crash investigation. The officer later admitted during an internal affairs interview that he knowingly plucked a New Jersey license plate from the scene and threw it away, according to the report.
The state’s discipline dashboard does not include pending cases. CJ Griffin, a media and public interest lawyer who focuses on public records, and who worked on the lawsuit that led to the release of these reports, noted that the data still needs improvements.
“The descriptions are often vague,” Griffin said.
“When it says an officer was disciplined for an inappropriate post on Facebook or inappropriate comments in the workplace, I think we deserve to know more than that. Was it sexual harassment? Was it racism? The public deserves to know,” Griffin said.