NEW JERSEY

Legislation to create licensing for NJ police officers proposed by Gov. Phil Murphy

Ken Serrano
Asbury Park Press

Gov. Phil Murphy announced proposed legislation Wednesday that would create licensing for police in the state that he said would make it easier to fire rogue officers.

“It will send a strong message that we are rebuilding the bonds of trust between the police and residents, especially in Black and brown communities,” Murphy said during the announcement at the Essex County Police Academy in Cedar Grove with Acting Attorney General Matt Platkin.

New Jersey has been grappling with the question of licensing police officers for at least the past four years. Licensing was one of several recommendations the Asbury Park Press made in its police misconduct series “Protecting the Shield” that were embraced by then-Attorney General Gurbir Grewal after its publication in January 2018.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announces that law enforcement will need a license to actively work in the state during a press conference at the Essex County Police Academy in Cedar Grove on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.

The series highlighted the fact that New Jersey stands nearly alone in the nation in failing to license police officers.

Rhode Island and Hawaii are frequently mentioned as the other states without licensing.

But police licensing is a broad catch-all that obscures some of the details of the process of removing a police officer from policing, which varies around the country.

Decertification is more to the point.

Technically, New Jersey already has a decertification process. You receive certification when you graduate from the police academy. You lose it three years after you leave a law enforcement agency, said James Sharrock, vice chairman of the state’s Police Training Commission.

Matthew Platkin, New Jersey's acting attorney general, speaks on the announcement of licenses for all law enforcement in the state during a press conference at the Essex County Police Academy in Cedar Grove on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.

Officers looking to recertify after the three years has tolled must go through the academy again, which has happened, Sharrock said.

But decertification as it has stood in New Jersey for decades doesn’t have any teeth.

Aside from a failed drug test, there’s no mechanism that allows officials to decertify a police officer, not even if they committed a heinous crime, Sharrock said.

Of course, they could get terminated, but not decertified, meaning they could conceivably turn up in another New Jersey police department.

Police licensing in New Jersey would change that. 

Two years ago, a Woodlynne police officer made headlines after he was charged in connection with the accusation that he pepper-sprayed people "without provocation." The officer was working at his ninth police department in New Jersey, a fact that caught the eye of Grewal, who called for licensing cops in a tweet.

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Platkin said officers who run afoul of professional standards and have their license revoked would not only "lose the right to have the privilege of wearing a badge, they will not be able to obtain a new badge in a different town or, in some cases, an entirely different state."

But what acts would warrant an officer getting stripped of their license? Where will the bar be set: committing a crime, a disorderly persons offense, a petty disorderly or being found guilty of a departmental charge or charges?

Membership in a hate group, a domestic violence conviction and any conviction that would prohibit an officer from having a firearm are a few of the infractions that would trigger revocation under the draft legislation, Murphy said.

An officer convicted of a crime anywhere in the U.S. would also face revocation, his office said.

Disagreements over whether that's strict enough could lead to a political battle over the issue.

Two years ago, a representative on the Police Training Commission for New Jersey’s largest police union voted in favor of the licensing plan that eventually led to the proposed legislation, though he expressed concerns.

“Like I’ve said from the beginning, the devil’s in the details," said Kevin Lyons, who represents The New Jersey State Policemen's Benevolent Association. He objected to the idea of asking cops to pay a fee to get their license and stressed the importance of due process when revoking a cop's license.

“Some officers may be rehabilitated from some offenses," he said.

Pat Colligan, president of the state PBA, threw the union's support behind Murphy’s proposed legislation.

“This is not a bill to be feared,” he said, in a message to members of police unions. “It codifies what was basically in effect. The Attorney General's Office and the unions are often at opposite ends of the boxing ring. To sit in the same corner and to work with some of the familiar faces in the back from (the office) was a pleasure."

The New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, the members of which would be the most likely to seek a revocation, was not represented at the announcement.

A call placed to the organization was not immediately returned.

Potential sponsors have lined up.

Sen. Linda Greenstein, D-Middlesex, the assistant majority leader and chair of the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee, plans to sponsor the bill, she said.

Assemblyman William Spearman, D-Camden, the chair of the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee, said he would work with Greenstein and other colleagues, "to make this a reality."

Aside from legislators, their aides and law enforcement brass, members of Black advocacy and community groups also filled seats at the announcement.

Reva Foster, chair of the New Jersey Black Issues Convention, speaks during the press conference. Gov. Phil Murphy announced Wednesday that law enforcement will need a license to actively work in the state.

Reva Foster, the chair of the New Jersey Black Issues Convention, an umbrella organization for various church, political, social, civil rights and other predominantly African-American statewide organizations, also spoke.

"It is long overdue. It is long overdue. And we're happy to have it happening today," she said.

Ken Serrano covers crime, breaking news, police accountability and local issues. Reach him at kserrano@gannettnj.com.