Police Disciplinary Records

The NJ Legislature has a bill before it to make police disciplinary records public. This bill is crucial if we are to hold police officers fully accountable for their mistreatment of members of the public.

Here are the specifics on the bill:

Former Attorney General Grewal has noted that New Jersey lags far behind states such as New York, Connecticut, Georgia, and Florida in having such a bill: “We are among the shrinking number of states where police records remain shrouded in secrecy.” He argues that this is bad for public trust and bad for public safety. He has stated that it is time to embrace scrutiny head-on and that our professional law enforcement officers, in very large measure, have nothing to hide.

Action Request

Please write, call, or text one or more of the following, urging them to act on Assembly bill 5301/Senate bill 2656. At the end of this message is a draft you can use to create your email.

General Assembly

• Assemblyman Adam Taliaferro, Chair of the Assembly Law & Public Safety Committee, asmtaliaferro@njleg.org, (856) 339-0808
• Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, asmcoughlin@njleg.org, (732) 855-7441

NJ Senate

• Senator Paul Sarlo: Chair of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, SenSarlo@njleg.org, (201) 804-8118
• State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, SenSweeney@njleg.org, (856) 251-9801

DRAFT OF MESSAGE ON POLICE DISCIPLINARY RECORDS

Dear [Senator or Assemblymember XX]:

The NJ Legislature has a bill before it to make police disciplinary records public (Assembly bill 5301/Senate bill 2656). This bill is crucial if we are to hold police officers fully accountable for their mistreatment of members of the public.

Former Attorney General Grewal has noted that New Jersey lags far behind states such as New York, Connecticut, Georgia, and Florida in having such a bill: “We are among the shrinking number of states where police records remain shrouded in secrecy.” He argues that this is bad for public trust and bad for public safety. He has stated that it is time to embrace scrutiny head-on and that our professional law enforcement officers, in very large measure, have nothing to hide.

I urge you to make sure that this important bill is reported out of committee and brought to a vote before this legislative session ends in January.Sincerely,

[your name] [town]