TRENTON - Attorney General Peter C. Harvey
today released the eighth independent
monitor’s report that shows the
State Police have made dramatic progress
in the critical areas of road operations
and internal affairs investigations, and
have made continued progress overall in
reaching compliance with the Federal Consent
Decree.
Based on the information and technological
advances now available to the independent
monitors, the State Police have undergone
unprecedented levels of review. “I
believe the report shows that the monitors
are ‘encouraged’ by the levels
of professionalism and dedication the
State Police have demonstrated in implementing
every phase of the consent decree,”
said Attorney General Harvey. “While
we have made significant progress, more
work is required particularly in the area
of training. We will concentrate our efforts
upon both pre-service and in-service training
over the next few months.”
The Attorney General noted that since
the consent decree was entered into with
the Department of Justice in December
1999, the State Police have put in place
a number of significant changes: cameras
in police vehicles, road supervisors to
approve consent searches, staff sergeant
positions at stations to review camera
tape recordings and stop reports, computer
systems to enhance collection of data,
enhanced training in constitutional principles
and non-discrimination requirements, state-of-the-art
internal affairs, and the complete overhaul
of policies and procedures.
The independent monitors, Dr. James
Ginger and Albert Rivas, Esq., conducted
their reviews last May. Based on the reviews,
the monitors said the State Police have
made “significant” progress
toward compliance, however, they identified
a few areas that need to be resolved.
The Attorney General noted that the
monitors gave high praise to the State
Police in two areas that directly effect
the public: State Police on-road operations
and internal affairs investigations.
The monitors found no evidence that
the State Police used race or ethnicity
in making a law enforcement decision,
according to the report.
Attorney General Peter Harvey stated,
“this report demonstrates a dramatic
improvement in the enforcement areas that
affect the constitutional rights of the
public.” He pointed out that in
three enforcement sections critical to
the consent decree - consent searches,
canine deployments, and use of force incidents
- the monitors found no errors.
State Police Affairs Director Daniel
Giaquinto further noted that although
the error rate of consent decree tasks
relating to on-road operations has remained
basically stable since the last reporting
period (13%), “the vast majority
of those errors are procedural in nature
only and not of constitutional significance.”
In fact, the percentage of those errors
attributed to potential constitutional
issues dramatically decreased from 91%
in the fifth period to 15% (7 out of 46
errors) in this reporting period. These
seven errors all involved frisks that
either were not based on the requisite
legal standard or lacked adequate documentation.
In the area of internal affairs, the
Office of Professional Standards (State
Police internal affairs) “continues
to perform strongly,” the monitors
wrote. A backlog of nearly 500 cases has
been eliminated in the past 18 months,
and OPS continues to conduct internal
investigations in an effective and unbiased
manner. They noted that the quality of
the investigations remains strong, OPS
conducts its investigations in the required
time of 120 days, and that the staffing
levels are appropriate.
First Assistant Attorney General Edward
Neafsey praised the work of the OPS unit,
saying “an effective internal affairs
unit is critical to the integrity of every
law enforcement agency.” The troopers
at OPS worked extremely hard at eliminating
the backlog and at conducting a fair and
impartial review of complaints. “I
believe that the monitors latest report,
which notes the timeliness of IA investigations
handled by OPS, reflects State Police’s
genuine commitment to police itself,”
Neafsey said.
While the change of superintendents
(three since the consent decree was entered
into in December 1999) remains an issue
with the monitors, they found that the
appointment of Superintendent Rick Fuentes
portends continued success toward compliance
of the consent decree. The monitors observed
that the superintendent met with members
of the monitoring team on several occasions
and that the team is convinced he is committed
to the consent decree.
The monitors criticized the staffing
level at the training academy as inadequate.
They expressed concern that the academy
was understaffed given the tasks expected
of the training process as compliance
with the decree was pursued.
State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes
stated, “Although we are pleased
with the overall findings of the monitors
report, we will continue our efforts to
rectify and improve any deficiencies.
Future implementation of improved technology
and innovative training procedures will
serve to ensure our compliance with the
mandates of the consent decree.”
MAAPS, the state-of-the-art computer
system is slated to be operational by
January 2004. The monitors noted that
a final draft plan had been submitted
by the State. The monitors reviewed the
plan and approved it with minor revisions,
and said that compliance with the time-line
is important toward overall compliance
of the consent decree.
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