NJ legislature opts out police review board legislation. Activists vow new effort in 2024

PATERSON — The state Legislature ended its 2022-23 session this week without acting on a bill that would have created a civilian board in Paterson to investigate complaints against police officers.

Mayor Andre Sayegh five years ago had touted the creation of a civilian complaint review board as one of the cornerstones for rebuilding trust between city residents and police officers. But the initiative has not made any progress since then.

Social justice activists say such review boards offer a powerful tool for holding police officers accountable, but law enforcement union leaders say giving the civilian panels investigative powers may undermine cops’ civil rights.

What comes next?

Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter, who represents Paterson, expressed optimism that the legislature eventually will pass the review board bill.

“It’s still the right thing to do,” said Sumter on Tuesday morning.

This marks the second consecutive legislative session in which state officials in Trenton passed on the bill, which was first proposed in 2020.

After not making progress during the first 23 months of the 202-23 session, advocates of the review board proposal tried revising it to get approval. Supporters dropped language that would have allowed the creation of review boards in every municipality in New Jersey and replaced it with a plan for five-year pilot programs in four cities — Paterson, Jersey City, Newark and Trenton.

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“Civilian complaint review boards can be a powerful tool to improve police accountability and transparency,” said Zellie Thomas, one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter in Paterson. “Unfortunately, because of that fact, they are not supported by police unions and the politicians they support. Everyone deserves their rights to be protected, not just the police.”

But Angel Jimenez, president of the Paterson PBA, Local 1, said he was concerned the review board legislation would give the civilian panel too much power, including the authority to issue subpoenas.

Jimenez said someone last year had filed a public records request for information from five Paterson police officers’ personal cell phones. He said a civilian investigative committee may make similar demands through subpoenas he said would violate officers’ privacy.

“I’m always in favor of making better relations between the community and police,” said the PBA president. “But sometimes these organizations are okay with violating people’s civil rights as long as the people are police officers,” he added, referring to social justice groups.

The CCRB bill never came up for a vote from the full Assembly or Senate. A subcommittee in the Assembly gave its approval last month in a 3-1 vote. Sen. Shirly Turner, one of the legislation’s sponsors, has attributed the lack of progress to the political power of New Jersey’s police unions.

Sumter said “systematic change” often takes many years in the legislature. She noted that other reform proposals, such as those that required cops to wear body cameras and established independent prosecutors to investigate police shootings, initially stalled in Trenton.

“Anything that’s good, takes time,” Sumter said.

Newark had tried to create its own civilian review board to investigate allegations of police misconduct almost a decade ago. But police unions filed a lawsuit and the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that there was nothing in state law that gave civilians such subpoena power. Sumter’s bill would establish the board’s investigative authority.

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"We're disappointed that New Jersey's elected officials have once again failed to prioritize police accountability,” said Yannick Wood, Director of the Criminal Justice Reform Program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.

“The continuation of police violence against Black people in this state — including the killing of Najee Seabrooks in Paterson and Andrew Washington in Jersey City just this year — makes it clear that we need civilian review boards more than ever,” Wood added.

Seabrooks-Washington bill will fund NJ council on community crisis

The lack of action on the review board was somewhat overshadowed by the passage of another piece of legislation backed by social justice activists — a bill named after Paterson’s Najee Seabrooks and Drew Washington of Jersey City, two men fatally shot by police in separate incidents last year while they were going through emotional disturbances.

That bill will create a state council on community crisis in the Attorney General’s Office and provides $12 million for community groups in six cities, including Paterson, to create crisis response teams. The legislation doesn’t provide details on whether those teams would operate independently from local police or in conjunction with them. Supporters say the program would be tailored to the needs of the various communities involved.

Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: editor@patersonpress.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ police review board legislation stalls what comes next