New Jersey State Police have a “long and notorious history” of discrimination, attorney says. Will it ever change?

Women who worked for the New Jersey State Police were told they were “a liability on the streets” or “not tough enough for the job.”

Colored soldiers were told, “Just because you’re black doesn’t make you a good cop.”

And for the most part, they stayed silent and “tried to stick it out so they wouldn’t be labeled ‘difficult’ or ‘troublemakers’ and hopefully accepted by the group.”

Those were among the damning findings of an investigation into long-standing complaints of gender and racial discrimination within the state’s largest law enforcement agency, conducted by an outside law firm and released last week by Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin.

The report and a second investigation by the agency’s internal affairs division promised sweeping changes, Platkin said, and had “unearthed deeply troubling behaviors and systemic problems within the New Jersey State Police that require reform.”

These reforms included the development of new mechanisms for reporting misconduct within the state police, a review of the practice and frequency of transfers to ensure they cannot be manipulated, changes to sick leave policies, and physical fitness testing to make the police a more attractive place to work to make reforms to the hiring process so that the department’s demographics better reflect the state’s diversity, and annual, mandatory in-service training for all members on discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation, and the implementation of an anti-hazing policy.

“Reports released this week analyzed the New Jersey State Police’s advertising practices and work environment. As a result of the findings of these reports, we are immediately implementing significant reforms to bring about meaningful change, including taking on State Police human resources functions. To ensure that individuals feel comfortable reporting possible discrimination, our office will also have oversight of this process,” a spokeswoman for the attorney general said Friday. “The women and men of the New Jersey State Police deserve nothing less, and we are confident that by working together, these improvements will make the State Police even stronger.”

But an attorney for many troopers and civilian employees who have taken legal action against the state police called the reports a confirmation of everything alleged in the dozens of lawsuits still in court.

“What makes this story particularly compelling is the stark contrast between public statements and the reality experienced by these police officers and state employees,” said Michelle Douglass, who represents 20 of them. “Despite numerous opportunities to address these issues, leadership has consistently failed to implement meaningful change.”

Even now, she said, the state continues to take a hard line in fighting ongoing lawsuits that describe a dark culture within the state police that constitutes blatant gender and racial discrimination. They detailed the claims of numerous women that they were denied opportunities for advancement. Of Latino soldiers who allege discrimination. And from a veteran black soldier who had long served as the state police’s top spokesman who said he was transferred against his will, only to have him eliminated from the running for a soon-to-be-vacated lieutenant colonel position.

Douglass complained that Col. Patrick Callahan, the state police superintendent, did not promise to put things in order until after the reports were released. She called his words “a promise that rings hollow to those who have suffered for years under his leadership.”

Her court filing, meanwhile, noted the state police’s “long and notorious history” of engaging in patterns and practices of gender discrimination in all aspects of employment, which she said were tolerated and even encouraged within the island agency for decades. Some of those complaints date back to the 1970s, when the U.S. Department of Justice accused the agency of discriminatory hiring and secured a consent decree that called for greater minority representation in a department that then had just 13 blacks, five Hispanics and one Woman.

But it was an ongoing series of lawsuits and anonymous complaints about the alleged persistent culture of discrimination within the state police that led to the state hiring Hackensack-based Kaufman | retained Dolovich in August 2020 to conduct an external investigation. The investigation cost the state $497,808, a spokeswoman for the attorney general said.

According to the report, former Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal called on the firm to conduct an investigation, citing two anonymous letters from authors who identified themselves as women and minority state troopers.

Douglass said Grewal initiated the so-called “Women’s Listening Sessions” in response to the anonymous letters. After the first recorded session took place in July 2020, she noted that Callahan called for the sessions to be held in person “to be meaningful.” However, she said the state police superintendent never showed up for a single face-to-face meeting with the female officers.

Among those she represents is Wanda Stojanov, who, with more than 25 years of service, said she has been repeatedly excluded from promotion and, at times, even from the promotion process for the ranks of major and lieutenant colonel.

Claire Krauchuk became a soldier in 2008. In her lawsuit, she recounted the sexual harassment she suffered early in her career from her then-staff sergeant, who she said repeatedly called her when he was drunk and off-duty and invited her to go out with him a strip club in Sayreville, put his arm around her against her will and “regularly stared at her butt and ogled her.”

As she began undergoing fertility treatment, which generally requires flexible days for egg retrieval and transfer as well as time for numerous scans and consultations, she learned that state police had no guidelines for women trying to conceive. According to its court filing, in the more than 45 years since the first woman joined the state police, the agency has “not found the need to develop policies for pregnant or breastfeeding women.”

Maj. Brian Polite – the state police’s former top spokesman – claimed he was passed over for promotions and subjected to racist taunts from white colleagues. In one case, the lawsuit says, he missed out on promotion to a white man with far less experience who was alleged to have a significant record of serious disciplinary action that resulted in lengthy suspensions for drunken driving while driving a had driven a vehicle issued by the State Police.

Douglass said in addition to ongoing discrimination in promotions and hiring, many police officers apply for civilian jobs with the state police after they retire. One of the people she represents repeatedly applied for employment after she retired, but was told that someone higher up had rejected her. Nevertheless, despite offenses such as drunk driving in patrol cars or assaults on girlfriends, several male police officers were hired “with really bad discipline.”

“There is a pervasive culture that needs to change,” the lawyer said.

A spokeswoman for Platkin said that while she could not comment on pending litigation, “the Attorney General’s Office’s efforts to increase accountability and transparency and take action to implement substantive and meaningful reforms demonstrate our commitment to ensuring fairness and equality.” .” ”

Without passing judgment on the plaintiffs’ claims, Brian Higgins, a former Bergen County police chief and county public safety director who is now an associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the number of complaints suggests the need a complete assessment of the State Police from top to bottom.

“I don’t know that they’re intentionally trying to hire minorities,” he said. “But these complaints are consistent. There appears to be a consistency in the allegations and this needs to be verified.”

At the same time, he said he was a little shocked by the number of minorities and women in the state police ranks. Noting the very public recruiting efforts, Higgins remarked, “I thought they were more diverse.”

Wayne Fisher, a senior policy adviser at the Rutgers University Center on Policing who served as deputy director of the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice and as such chairman of the New Jersey Police Training Commission, said he was unsure why that was the case Charges keep popping up.

“I know, however, that for the Attorney General, the State Police and all involved, to continue responding to this persistent internal perception or practice is, at best, a corrosive distraction from public safety and the public service mission of the police.” New Jersey State Police.

In fact, he said that distraction “in and of itself is sufficient reason to address this once and for all.”

Read the external investigation into the state police

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Ted Sherman available at [email protected]. Follow him on X @TedShermanSL.