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TRENTON
– Attorney General Paula T. Dow announced
today the release of the first public report
of aggregate data on State Police motor
vehicle stops prepared by the Attorney General’s
Office of Law Enforcement Professional Standards
(OLEPS).
The
report continues the sequence of reports
released on State Police motor vehicle stops
while the State Police was under a 1999
Consent Decree. The Consent Decree was dissolved
in 2009.
The
OLEPS report issued today contains data
on the number of motor vehicle stops for
each State Police troop and station, as
well as data on what law enforcement procedures
were employed during the stops, what enforcement
actions were taken, the nature of any arrests
made, etc.
The
aggregate data report, which covers a two-month
period spanning May 1, 2009 through June
30, 2009, shows that Troopers asked drivers
for consent to search during 245 motor vehicle
stops. Over the previous six months, Troopers
asked for consent to search in 186 traffic
stops, according to the last aggregate data
report prepared under the Consent Decree.
The number of actual consent searches conducted
by Troopers during the two-month period
covered by the OLEPS report (231) also was
significantly higher than in the prior six
months (146).
The increase in requests for consent to
search, as well as actual searches, appears
directly related to a March 2009 decision
of the New Jersey Supreme Court in the matter
of State v. Pena-Flores. That ruling went
to the ability of law enforcement officers
to use exigent circumstances as a basis
for searching automobiles without a warrant.
The
aggregate data report issued by OLEPS today
was produced as a transition from the six-month
periods reported previously under the Consent
Decree. The next report will contain aggregate
data on State Police motor vehicle stops
for July through December 2009, followed
by a report for January 2010 through June
2010, thereby establishing new, semi-annual
periods for future reports.
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