Two reports released by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office on Sept. 24, 2024, identified systemic problems in the state police’s internal affairs and promotions processes. (Jamie Squire | Getty Images)
It’s been a year since a coalition of Black and progressive activists urged the feds to investigate the New Jersey State Police, accusing the 3,000-member agency of routinely promoting bad white cops over qualified troopers of color in a “rampant, deep-rooted pattern and practice of discrimination.”
Now, two new bombshell reports appear to confirm that claim.
An investigation into the agency’s Office of Professional Standards — essentially, its internal affairs unit — found a culture of tolerance for the bad behavior of their friends, leaving officers outside that fraternity reluctant to report discrimination or misconduct for fear of reprisals.
A separate probe into the agency’s recruitment, hiring, and promotions found a decades-long dearth of female or minority troopers in its top positions, as well as alarming reports of racist comments and ignored pleas for equitable facilities and treatment.
The two bombshell reports were released simultaneously Tuesday by state Attorney General Matt Platkin, who also announced that he would implement all reforms recommended in both.
“New Jersey Troopers are tasked with the difficult, but vital, responsibility of keeping our state safe. While most Troopers discharge these duties with distinction, these investigations revealed deeply troubling conduct and systemic problems within the New Jersey State Police that demand reform,” Platkin said in a statement.
State Police Col. Patrick Callahan agreed to accept the “necessary” reforms.
“We cannot allow these problems to tarnish the honor and fidelity that so many men and women in this uniform live by,” Callahan said in a statement.
State Police Superintendent Col. Pat Callahan agreed to implement ordered reforms. (Courtesy of New Jersey State Police)
Internal affairs probes
The first report is a memo that investigators from the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability — part of Platkin’s office — wrote Sunday to Platkin that says they began investigating the state police’s Office of Professional Standards in June 2022 because of an anonymous letter mishandled by the office’s Lt. Joseph Nitti.
The letter reported that one of Nitti’s friends made a racist comment about a senior Black trooper, but instead of investigating the racist comment, Nitti tried to uncover who sent the letter, according to the memo. In doing so, Nitti “took unprecedented steps and squandered State resources” trying to blame the Black trooper as the letter writer, according to the memo.
Those steps included obtaining typewriter samples, video, fueling records, and fingerprints, and seeking DNA testing in violation of direct orders and internal policies of the state police lab, according to the memo. Nitti also improperly shared confidential records from his investigation with someone else, the memo noted.
The anonymous author was never identified, but the senior Black trooper was disciplined, at Nitti’s urging, despite Nitti’s “thoroughly tainted” investigation, the memo found.
“This investigation brought into sharp focus the need to permit anonymous complaints, as many NJSP members expressed fear that if they reported misconduct they would suffer negative career consequences and become the target of retaliation of one type or another,” investigators wrote. “It is clear that undergoing an investigation to identify the person making an anonymous complaint undermines this policy.”
Investigators found other problematic behavior, too.
They discovered that in a group chat with colleagues, Nitti inappropriately discussed an episode involving a trooper who had been arrested for sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old girl while on a school sports trip, the memo says.
“Can we at least see a pic of her. I’d like to see what all the hubbub is about,” Nitti wrote.
None of the troopers who received the text reported it, and when questioned later by OPIA investigators, they all offered the same excuse, saying a photo of the underage girl could be relevant if she appeared to be 18 or older, according to the memo.
“The effort to justify Lt. Nitti’s indefensible comments reflects either a complete breakdown in the culture of the State Police OPS or a choreographed attempt to avoid accountability for blatant misconduct,” OPIA investigators wrote.
In response to the investigation, Platkin directed Callahan to take direct oversight over the Office of Professional Standards; transfer every trooper who received and failed to report Nitti’s text out of the office; and vacate the disciplinary charge against the senior Black trooper, even though that trooper has since retired.
Investigators also described a widespread perception among troopers they interviewed that some of their colleagues were “protected” or “favored,” could act with impunity, and got faster promotions and better assignments because of their personal relationships with command staff.
“These relationships, which typically stem from attending the same academy class or from social relationships outside of work, reinforce the view that NJSP is infused with an ‘inner circle’ mentality (where the ‘inner circle’ is dominated by white males),” investigators wrote.
Minority troopers who file complaints often get disciplined themselves for reporting allegations of improper conduct too late or too soon, investigators noted, so many seek transfers to escape problem bosses and colleagues instead of reporting them.
Investigators recommended creating a new system where troopers who want to file internal affairs complaints about command staff can do so through an ombudsperson or independent agency.
Nitti retired while the investigation was ongoing, the memo says.
The New Jersey State Police’s headquarters is in West Trenton. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
Alarming anecdotes of unfair treatment
A second report — dated Aug. 13 but released Tuesday — came after a four-year investigation into recruitment, hiring, promotions, and complaints of inequity in the state police.
Former Attorney General Gurbir Grewal ordered the probe in August 2020 after two anonymous letters signed by “women and minority NJSP officers” accused the agency of gender and race discrimination and a lack of diversity, inclusion, and equity.
The law firm Kaufman Dolowich conducted that investigation and issued a 119-page report. The state paid the firm more than $500,000 for its work, said Michael Symons, a Platkin spokesman.
The firm contracted a social scientist from the University of Michigan to do data analysis, and he found that a trooper’s race, heritage, gender, or age did not have any statistically significant impact on the number of promotions a trooper received over the five-year period studied (2017-2021).
Still, a majority of the about 150 troopers and former troopers who agreed to confidential interviews with the firm’s attorneys reported that they felt they experienced gender and race discrimination, according to the report.
One former trooper told researchers some colleagues referred to Black troopers as “white eyes” and told them to “keep their eyes and mouths shut” on police calls after dark, according to the report.
And while the number of troopers of color has nearly doubled since 1998, the ranks still don’t reflect the demographics of New Jersey, with diversity especially missing from the agency’s higher posts, the report found.
The troopers interviewed also echoed the findings of the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability investigators — that lengthy internal affairs and Equal Employment Opportunity complaints are weaponized to block promotions, researchers said. They reported that supervisors tolerate discrimination and discourage complaints and described the attorney general’s Equal Employment Opportunity office as “a joke.”
Female troopers complained that the agency, for decades, had failed to have both a maternity leave policy and a women’s locker room at the state police headquarters building that houses a pool and gym.
Women reported having to walk — wet and wrapped in a towel — across a blacktop parking lot to get to the women’s locker room, according to the report.
And although the agency adopted a maternity leave policy in 2021 and updated it in 2023, troopers on maternity leave had to follow the agency’s sick leave rules, which required them to be home between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and subjected to “integrity checks.” Such checks could come during doctor’s visits, breastfeeding, or the baby’s naptime, the female troopers reported.
“The experiences described in the report by troopers in the State Police are valid, disappointing, unacceptable, and will not be simply dismissed by NJSP leadership,” Platkin said.
Attorney General Matt Platkin ordered a series of reforms in the wake of two scathing reports about the New Jersey State Police. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
Platkin ordered about two dozen changes in the wake of the report, including requiring the agency to:
Notify the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability of all complaints made against its senior leaders and troopers who work in the Office of Professional Standards.
Develop an alternative mechanism for reporting misconduct, including anonymous reporting.
Reform the hiring process to ensure the agency’s demographics better reflect the state’s diversity.
Change sick leave policy and physical fitness tests for pregnant and postpartum troopers.
Give feedback to troopers who are transferred or passed over for promotion so they can improve.
Implement an anti-hazing policy and annual, mandatory training for all members on diversity, equity, inclusion, discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation.
Platkin also ordered all personnel and equal employment opportunity operations moved from the state police to the state Department of Law and Public Safety and directed the Office of Law Enforcement Professional Standards, which is in his office, to expand oversight of state police.
Police reformers said the reports underscore complaints advocates have long made about discriminatory hiring and advancement in the state’s largest law enforcement agency.
Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, applauded the reforms Platkin ordered.
“Law enforcement must be held accountable to the communities they are meant to serve,” Sinha said. “Police wield immense authority to detain, search, arrest, and use deadly force, but too often officers are not disciplined for misconduct, which disproportionately harms Black and brown communities. The Attorney General’s leadership in proposing additional mechanisms for accountability is a crucial step toward realizing the comprehensive change needed for New Jersey to build a fairer, more just future.”
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