Official Site of The State of New Jersey

On December 6, 2023, the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) published its report, “The High Price of Unregulated Private Police Training to New Jersey” (the December 2023 Report). That Report focused on the 2021 Street Cop Conference hosted by the private police training company Street Cop Training (Street Cop) that was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, between October 3, 2021 and October 8, 2021 (2021 Conference). As detailed in this report, OSC’s investigation uncovered alarming deficiencies in the police training provided at the 2021 Street Cop Conference and a dangerous and potentially costly gap in the oversight of private post-academy police training in New Jersey.

Since the publication of the December 2023 Report, OSC and the Police Accountability Project have received requests from organizations, out-of-state agencies, and individuals across the country for additional information about its findings. The widespread response to this report has reaffirmed that the lack of regulation of private police training is an issue that impacts not only New Jersey, but law enforcement agencies and communities nationwide.

After this report was published, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General acted swiftly to develop a retraining program for attendees of the 2021 Conference. On February 18, 2024, the Attorney General issued a Memorandum directing “all current law-enforcement officers who attended, or in any way participated in, the October 2021 Street Cop Training” to attend a three-hour retraining session. He also required officers to “self-report” their attendance at or involvement with the 2021 Conference, and those who failed to do so or failed to attend the retraining could be subject to discipline.^[1] On March 14, 2024, more than 240 officers in New Jersey who attended the 2021 Conference were retrained. Discussing this response in an interview, the Attorney General emphasized that it had now been made “very clear to all 38,000 sworn officers and their leadership that no one should be attending Street Cop Training in the State of New Jersey.”^[2]

In continuing to investigate, OSC received and reviewed thousands of additional documents from Street Cop and other sources. Based on this information, OSC was able to compile a more comprehensive list of police departments and law enforcement agencies in New Jersey that used public funds to pay for training provided by Street Cop between January 2019 and March 2023. Among other things, the documents reviewed support Street Cop’s previous assertion that public funds are the primary source of funding for officers’ attendance at its training classes and the 2021 Conference. The documents also included a significant amount of information about public funds spent on Street Cop training by out-of-state law enforcement agencies.

In light of the significant public interest in disclosing this information and to further promote transparency and accountability, OSC has determined it is necessary to publish this supplemental report.^[3] OSC also reiterates its recommendations from the original December 2023 Report and provides supplemental recommendations below to address its subsequent findings.

A. Over one million dollars in public funds in New Jersey was spent on Street Cop training courses and events between January 2019 and March 2023. 

Over one million dollars in public funds was spent by police departments and law enforcement agencies in New Jersey on courses and events hosted by Street Cop training between January 1, 2019 and March 13, 2023. This one million dollars represents at least 377 police departments and law enforcement agencies from New Jersey that spent some amount of public funds, predominantly for tuition costs, on Street Cop training during that timeframe.^[4] This list includes municipalities from all 21 counties in New Jersey.^[5] It also includes county and state agencies (including New Jersey State Police), as well as public universities and interstate agencies that provided some amount of public funds to Street Cop.^[6]

For a list of the government entities in New Jersey that spent public funds to send their officers to Street Cop training, see Appendix A to this supplemental report.

B. At least 32 departments and agencies in New Jersey spent additional public funds on Street Cop training after having an officer attend the 2021 Street Cop Conference.

OSC found that at least 32 New Jersey police departments and law enforcement agencies who had officers confirmed as having attended the 2021 Street Cop Conference continued to spend public funds on Street Cop training courses or events. In other words, because the officers in attendance at the 2021 Conference, many of whom were supervisors, failed to recognize or report that the training they received was problematic, many of their departments and agencies continued to spend public funds on courses and events hosted by the company.^[7] Even state agencies were not immune from this problem. The State of New Jersey spent over $3,000 for officers from three state agencies to attend additional training provided by Street Cop after the 2021 Conference, where not a single officer reported anything of concern.^[8]

As discussed more fully in OSC’s December 2023 Report, continuing to send officers to this kind of training could have implications under the New Jersey Law Prohibiting Discrimination, the New Jersey State Policy Prohibiting Discrimination in the Workplace, and other laws, directives, and policies intended to address these concerns.

For a list of law enforcement agencies that spent public funds to send their officers to Street Cop training after having an officer attend the 2021 Street Cop Conference, see Appendix B to this supplemental report.

C. Twenty New Jersey officers were registered to attend the 2024 Street Cop Conference.

Street Cop’s records indicated that officers from New Jersey attended the 2024 Street Cop Conference even after it was made clear to them by the New Jersey Attorney General that, due to the problems identified with the training, they should not be attending Street Cop courses going forward. Despite this clear instruction, at least 20 New Jersey officers appeared on Street Cop’s registration lists for the 2024 Street Cop Conference, which was held in Florida in April. This included New Jersey law enforcement officers from multiple municipal police departments, one county agency, and one state agency in New Jersey.

Some of those New Jersey officers came from departments and agencies that attended the 2021 Street Cop Conference in Atlantic City or that regularly attended other Street Cop training classes. Notably, nine of these officers used their official law enforcement email addresses to register for the 2024 Conference. OSC did not confirm attendance or whether public funds were spent to send them or if the officers paid for the training themselves. Both are problematic under the circumstances.

Given the serious implications of this information, the names of these officers and their departments and agencies have been provided to the Attorney General’s Office for further investigation or action, as needed.

D. Street Cop’s records indicate that problematic training and content was not limited to the 2021 Conference.

Given the extent of the unacceptable content at the 2021 Conference, and the fact that Street Cop training classes are typically paid for by an officer’s sending agency, OSC sought to understand whether other trainings provided by Street Cop raised similar concerns. OSC has now reviewed a small sample of additional video clips of other classes hosted by Street Cop, as well as other documents, class surveys, and records from the company. While OSC has not been able to view video footage from all of the events and courses that New Jersey law enforcement officers have attended with Street Cop training since 2019, OSC found compelling evidence that the content of the 2021 Conference was largely representative of the company’s training style.^[9]

The information reviewed also presented additional concerns about New Jersey law enforcement officers’ attendance at Street Cop trainings. One email exchange that OSC reviewed suggested that Street Cop would be willing to assist officers in hiding their attendance or non-attendance at Street Cop courses or events, if that request was made by the officer-attendee. In 2020, a company employee or instructor wrote they might have to deal with a law enforcement agency that “has told their people not to come to our training and could give them a hard time,” lamenting that they “don’t need guys who are trying to better themselves getting their balls busted at work.” The same company employee or instructor also wrote that if an officer was registered to attend one of the company’s courses, but ultimately did not attend, Street Cop would not disclose that information if contacted by the officer’s department or agency regarding attendance.

Even more troubling, the new information raised red flags about Street Cop’s instructors who are active law enforcement officers in New Jersey. Prior to and after OSC published its December 2023 Report, there were multiple communications from Street Cop instructors, including those that are active New Jersey law enforcement, to Street Cop administrative staff attempting to hide their involvement with the company and keep their training materials from getting “out there.” In one instance, an instructor who is an active state trooper in New Jersey requested to continue to sell his on-demand courses through the company, but without having it publicly advertised on the company’s website to “avoid any scrutiny from NJ.”^[10] OSC also became aware of multiple instances in which police departments or other agencies or entities had requested case law or other materials from Street Cop related to defending themselves in litigation or in support of the training that their officers had received from the company. One department that operates in New Jersey requested information from the company in 2023 because they were “working on defending officers in a lawsuit.” 

E. Nationally, 49 states spent public funds to send their officers to Street Cop training courses and events between January 2019 and March 2023.

In the course of its continuing investigation and in searching for information relevant to New Jersey, OSC encountered documents and records that pertained to out-of-state law enforcement agencies. OSC found records which indicated that 49 states, including New Jersey, provided some amount of public funds to Street Cop from January 1, 2019 to March 13, 2023. It appears that these funds came from at least 2,721 government entities nationwide. The only state not represented in the records that OSC reviewed was Hawaii.

OSC’s statutes direct OSC to make referrals to “other appropriate authorities for further civil or administrative action.” See N.J.S.A. 52:15C-12. In view of the importance of OSC’s findings in the December 2023 Report and in this report, OSC has published the list of government entities on the OSC website as a public referral. This will allow any and all appropriate out-of-state authorities to confirm officer attendance and take any other action deemed necessary.

For the national list of government entities that appear to have sent public funds to Street Cop between January 1, 2019 and March 13, 2023, see Appendix C to this supplemental report.

Given these supplemental findings, OSC has made additional referrals to the Office of the Attorney General and Division on Civil Rights. OSC also reiterates its previous recommendations as set out in the December 2023 Report, including the recommendation that post-academy police training should be regulated. Multiple police departments emphasized to OSC that they were unaware of the deficiencies with the training provided by Street Cop and lacked effective mechanisms and resources to vet appropriate police training for their officers. This further underscores that there is a need for a dedicated entity to oversee post-academy training, including establishing uniform standards and reviewing and approving training courses provided by private companies, instructors, and vendors who receive public funds in New Jersey. OSC also extends its previous recommendation about the need to retrain New Jersey law enforcement attendees of the 2021 Conference to apply to all attendees of other Street Cop training classes.