Police Practices

Our fear of violent street crime should not blind us to the profound evil that is perpetrated when those sworn to uphold and enforce the law themselves become lawbreakers.

— John A. Powell, former ACLU National Legal Director

Police have the vital and difficult job of protecting public safety. Performing this job effectively does not require sacrificing civil liberties. All New Jersey police agencies -- from the state patrol to city police forces -- need to respect the rights of individuals while enforcing the law. And when allegations of misconduct arise, there must be policies and mechanisms to hold police accountable for their actions.

Stop-and-Frisk

Stop-and-frisk. It started out as a rare tactic for police to use if there was reasonable suspicion that a person was committing or about to commit a crime. Unfortunately, in major cities, stop-and-frisk has become a fact of daily life for communities of color.

In Newark, we’re starting to get a clearer picture of how often police are stopping and patting down residents—and why.

Every month, the Newark Police Department (NPD) releases information on all stops, including how many people were stopped, where they were stopped, and whether the stops led to an arrest or not. The information also reveals who officers are stopping by reporting on the race and ages of the individuals, among other details. The ACLU-NJ, which advocated for the release of the data, hopes the information will give the public a better understanding of how the NPD uses stop-and-frisk.

Internal Affairs Roll Call Training Video

banner_police_prac_200: Newark Police Practices

The ACLU-NJ has released a roll call training video that explains best practices and guidelines for officers who receive internal affairs complaints. The video, which exclusively features New Jersey law enforcement professionals, is based on the state Attorney General’s statewide guidelines on internal affairs and provides a much-needed tool for training officers.

Police Toolkit

A step-by-step guide that will aid all New Jerseyans in assessing and documenting the treatment of citizens by police in their towns. Both toolkits below are identical except one is in black and white (for easier printing) and the other is in color. The toolkits are in PDF format and are each less than 1.5mb in size.

Press Releases

December 17, 2018 Assembly Votes Yes to Independent Prosecutors When Police Kill
December 11, 2018 Forfeiting Fairness: New Jersey’s Broken Civil Asset Forfeiture System
December 11, 2018 ACLU-NJ Report Reveals Abuse and Overuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture in New Jersey
October 16, 2018 Ed Barocas, an NJ Legal Giant, Retires as ACLU-NJ Legal Director
April 26, 2018 Newark Needs to End Its Livestreaming Mass Surveillance Program
March 26, 2018 ACLU-NJ Hails Senate Votes on Financial Aid for Immigrant Students & Police Accountability
January 18, 2018 ACLU-NJ Report: NJ Dramatically Underuses Programs to Divert Children from Justice System
January 1, 2018 Hoboken Mayor’s Signing ‘Fair & Welcoming' Policy As First Act Shows NJ Civil Rights Leadership
December 20, 2017 New ACLU-NJ Guide Helps Families Steer Children From Justice System
December 13, 2017 ACLU-NJ Unveils Vision for Shrinking Mass Incarceration

Legal Cases

State v. Nelson
Amicus brief challenging the lawfulness of a canine sniff that adds 37 minutes to a traffic stop.
State v. Fede
Amicus brief challenging defendant’s obstruction conviction when all he did was fail to assist officers’ entry into his home and instead said “get a warrant.”
State v. Chisum & Woodard
Amicus brief challenging officers’ detention of hotel guests to perform warrant checks in response to a noise complaint, raising issues of implicit racial bias.
State v. Camey
Amicus brief addressing state’s argument under the “inevitable discovery doctrine” that evidence should not be suppressed because if the police had not acted unconstitutionally, they would have acted constitutionally.
Ganzweig v. Ocean Co. Prosecutor’s Office
Amicus brief in support of a person who requested a police dashcam recording under the Open Public Records Act.
State v. Melendez
Amicus brief in challenge to Hudson County’s practice of using coerced statements as evidence in a criminal case against a defendant.
State v. Terry
Amicus brief in challenge to an unconstitutional search during a traffic stop.
State v. Hamlett
Amicus brief in challenge to evidence obtained from one warrantless and one improper search.
State v. Denelsbeck
Mandatory jail time of more than 6 months for third DUI offenders should trigger the right to a jury trial.
State v. Byseem Coles
Police conduct search of detained suspect’s room without his consent or a warrant.

Op-Eds

Corzine on My Mind (2009)
The Best Way to Curb Police Abuse (2008) (49k PDF)
ACLU-NJ Offers Analysis of AG's Flawed Directive (2007)
ACLU-NJ Urges AG to Revisit Flawed Directive (2007)
AG's Guidance Needed On Cops and Immigrants (2007)
Time to Tell Jersey Police: License, Please (2006)
ACLU Remains 'Eternally Vigilant' in Opposition to Racial Profiling (2001)

General Information

The Crisis Continues in Internal Affairs (2012)
The Crisis Inside Police Internal Affairs (2009)
The ACLU Supports the Rights of Police (2008) (44k PDF)

Bust Cards: What to Do If Stopped by the Police

English Bust Card (1mb PDF)
Spanish Bust Card (96k PDF)
Portuguese Bust Card (1.3mb PDF)

Can't find what you're looking for? Try looking in the Police Practices Archives.

Confidential Informant Report

In June 2011, the ACLU-NJ and ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project released a study that examines the use of confidential informants in New Jersey. The study revealed inconsistent policies governing the use of confidential informants at all levels of government, which has led to violations of informants' rights and compromises in the integrity of criminal investigations. The report offers a series of recommendations for police departments who use confidential informants and it has spurred three New Jersey counties to begin reforming their policies after reviewing an early draft of the report. View a copy of the Confidential Informant Report now

The Settlement Project: Citizen Edition

Read about some of the 23 recently-settled cases against the Newark Police Department involving civilians, where people received payouts totaling over $1.6 million from the City of Newark because of some kind of police misconduct in the The Settlement Project: Citizen Edition. These cases include some claims of truly reprehensible brutality, false arrest, malicious prosecution, and negligence.

The Settlement Project: Employee Edition

Between January 1, 2008 and the present, eleven cases brought against the Newark Police by its own employees settled, at a taxpayer cost of nearly $2.1 million. Seven more employee cases remain pending. Although taxpayers must foot the entire bill for these settlements, Newark doesn't readily publicize these cases or settlements, which leaves the public in the dark about what claims are made, how they are settled, and what if any corrective action results from these expensive resolutions. Read about some of these cases in the The Settlement Project: Employee Edition.