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TRENTON
– Attorney General Paula T. Dow announced
today that a new monitoring report on State
Police enforcement activities issued by
the state’s own Office of Law Enforcement
Professional Standards (OLEPS) documents
continued compliance with federal benchmarks
set under a 1999 federal Consent Decree
that has since been dissolved.
Among
other things the report – the first
in-house monitoring report on State Police
issued since dissolution of the Consent
Decree in 2009 – is based on an analysis
of data from hundreds of motor vehicle stops
in 2008, and a review by OLEPS staffers
of nearly 300 videotapes of such stops.
The OLEPS also conducted audits of the State
Police internal affairs and training functions
to determine if they met the standards of
the Consent Decree. In addition, OLEPS evaluated
the efforts of State Police management in
supervising the activities of subordinate
troopers through the system known as MAPPS
(Management Awareness Personnel Performance
System), as well as other mechanisms. The
report covers the period of January 1, 2008
through December 31, 2008, a time during
which State Police remained subject to federal
oversight.
“This
report demonstrates that, as an organization,
the State Police continues to embrace historic
change and serve as a national model in
such areas as training, supervision and
trooper accountability,” said Attorney
General Dow. “However, despite the
fact that State Police efforts to address
the issue of profiling have been recognized
as successful, we are duty-bound to remain
vigilant. We have a statutory responsibility
to ensure that, going forward, the same
‘best practices’ that got us
to this point are adhered to every day,
and that our high standards for trooper
performance, as well as trooper supervision,
are never compromised.”
The
1999 Consent Decree, which the State entered
into along with the U.S. Justice Department,
followed an investigation into the profiling
of minority drivers on New Jersey’s
highways. On September 21, 2009, after a
decade of federal monitoring, U.S. District
Court Judge Mary L. Cooper granted motions
from both parties and dissolved the Consent
Decree.
However,
a state Advisory Committee on Police Standards
that conducted an independent review of
State Police practices recommended the reforms
adopted by State Police be codified in legislation.
That was done through passage of the Law
Enforcement Professional Standards Act of
2009. Signed into law in August 2009, the
legislation not only codifies reforms implemented
by State Police to end racial profiling,
it mandates continued State oversight and
monitoring – the role previously performed
by federal monitors -- by an office under
the Attorney General’s purview. That
office is the OLEPS.
Highlights
of the first OLEPS monitoring report include:
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Significant progress has been made in
the area of identifying Trooper training
issues that arise out of day-to-day activities,
developing training programs to address
those issues, and measuring the ultimate
effectiveness of the programs.
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The OLEPS monitors noted fewer issues
or problems with regard to the “reasonable
suspicion” articulated by Troopers
in support of their requests for consent
to search vehicles. This was attributed
to effective training in a 2007 in-service
that responded to issues raised in prior
federal monitoring reports.
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State Police supervisors who reviewed
hundreds of motor vehicle stops in 2008
failed to identify Trooper errors in less
than six percent of the incidents, for
better than a 94 percent compliance rate,
satisfying the established benchmark for
the process.
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Malfunctions attributable to sound or
video problems with the on-board recording
equipment in State Police patrol cars
are increasing, and were found in 15 percent
of the car stop tapes reviewed by OLEPS.
While the report identifies this as a
potential concern, it also notes that
patrol cars are to be outfitted with new,
digital recording technology starting
in 2010.
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The State Police Office of Professional
Standards (formerly Internal Affairs)
has developed and implemented an “Incident
Reduction Initiative,” which was
not required by the Consent Decree, but
is consistent with it. The Initiative
seeks to reduce the number of motorist
complaints through an aggressive program
of data collection and analysis that will
allow the State Police Office of Professional
Standards (internal affairs) to proactively
address the needs of Troopers whose actions
suggest a need for refresher training
or other corrective measures.
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