US Justice Department finds unlawful use of force by New Jersey police

By Andrew Goudsward

-The U.S. Justice Department found that police in the New Jersey city of Trenton routinely use unreasonable force and stop and arrest drivers and pedestrians without legal justification, according to a report made public on Thursday.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, following a 13-month investigation, found that Trenton police officers often use physical force, including pepper spray, against people who are not threatening them and unnecessarily escalate situations with aggressive tactics.

“Police officers must respect people’s civil and constitutional rights and treat people with dignity,” said Kristen Clarke, the head of the Civil Rights Division, in a statement.

The probe found police in Trenton, New Jersey’s capital city of about 90,000 residents, engaged in a pattern of violations under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which bars unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.

The Justice Department said Trenton and its police department cooperated with the probe and adopted certain reforms, including disbanding two street enforcement units involved in the violations.

Trenton Mayor W. Reed Gusciora said the city provided the Justice Department broad access to the police department for its investigation and pledged to implement reforms.

“Even prior to the USDOJ review, the City and the TPD had already begun to change policies and practices that prioritize community safety, accountability and respect for civil liberties,” Gusciora said in the statement.

The report found Trenton has paid more than $7 million since 2021 to resolve lawsuits over officer misconduct. A 64-year-old man died of respiratory failure days after being slammed on his porch and pepper-sprayed despite posing no threat to officers, according to the report.

The investigation is one of 12 launched by the Justice Department during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration into claims of systemic civil-rights abuses by state and local police departments.

Much of that work could be scrapped when Republican President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in January. His first administration sharply curtailed probes into police departments and his allies have criticized the investigations as unfairly hostile to police.

The Justice Department has yet to secure court-approved settlements, known as consent decrees, to enforce reforms following any of the five completed investigations.

Trenton committed to further changes, but there was no indication the city agreed to a negotiated settlement.

“Our expectation is that the work on this investigation and promoting a remedy will continue under the next administration,” Philip Sellinger, the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, whose office worked on the probe, told reporters.

The Justice Department recommended Trenton take a series of steps to address its findings, including overhauling use-of-force policies and improving officer training. 

Seven other probes into police departments remain pending.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Rod Nickel)