The New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police joins other New Jersey Law Enforcement Organizations with deep concerns about the Attorney General’s new directive “Major Discipline Directive”he issued on June 15, 2020. The state lodge believes in the true transparency in the Law Enforcement Community with the public, but we do not believe this directive accomplishes that goal.During these unprecedented times with law enforcement and the public trust, I wonder why this directive was needed.We have in place the current “Internal Affairs Directive”that states:fines or suspensions of 10 days or more would be reported,which has now been changed to 5 days or more.I guess our law enforcement community has been doing such a great job in New Jersey that there was not enough information to report to the public. Releasing of names of officers does nothing more than cause additional stress for them and their families.
The cases involving the NJ State Police, which is one of the most respected Police Agencies in this country, to go back 20 years is a disgrace. I am sure,that there are true heroes of the state police that are honored on the walls of the Police Memorial in Washington DC, that gave their lives,will show up on this list. There will be names of deceased state police officers on the list too, which will disgrace their families left behind.I only wish that the Attorney General of this state would have reached out to our police organizations prior to this directive being issued,so we could have helped him draft a directive that was good for the citizens of this state and law enforcement.In closing, all the police organizations in this state will be working together to try to resolve this matter. (READ FULL LETTER HERE).
Robert W. Fox President NJFOP
