Articles
Reporting from the record
Every piece here is built from the same public data the rest of the site runs on, with each factual claim cited to a specific source file. No anonymous sourcing, no outside reporting: the records do the arguing.
Explainer · 2026-07
The New Jersey agencies that report no internal affairs investigations
Each year the Attorney General publishes a list of law enforcement agencies that reported zero internal affairs investigations. Most are small. A few appear year after year.
Explainer · 2026-07
Corrections agencies account for a large share of New Jersey's major police discipline
Two state and county corrections departments together produced more than 900 major discipline records from 2020 to 2025. Here is why they sit apart from municipal policing in this data.
Explainer · 2026-07
Major discipline reports are rising. Read the trend carefully.
Finalized major discipline in New Jersey climbed from 226 records in 2020 to 816 in 2025. Three things could drive that, and only one of them is more misconduct.
Explainer · 2026-07
The officers disciplined more than once
Most officers in New Jersey's major discipline data appear a single time. But 385 appear more than once, and one appears fifteen times.
Explainer · 2026-07
Radio encryption and what the public can still see
At least 95 New Jersey departments in this site's data encrypt their radio communications. That choice closes one window on policing. The records here are another.
Explainer · 2026-07
How to read a department report card
A grade on this site is not a verdict. It is a department's position among agencies like it, on the two things the records can measure.
Explainer · 2026-07
Two departments, the same complaint, very different odds
Among New Jersey's busiest internal affairs units, the share of complaints sustained ranges from under 1% to over 40%.
Explainer · 2026-07
New Jersey's sheriffs and county jails have no staffing figure
Every municipal police department in the state reports its headcount to the FBI. Not one of the 21 sheriff's offices does.
Explainer · 2026-07
The biggest category in New Jersey's complaint data is the one that says nothing
More than a third of every internal affairs allegation reported in New Jersey lands in a bucket called Other Departmental Rule Violation.
Explainer · 2026-07
What a suspension actually means in New Jersey police discipline
The median published suspension is fifteen days. A handful run past a year. The distribution says more than the average does.
Explainer · 2026-07
What counts as major discipline in New Jersey
The state's most detailed public record of police discipline covers only the serious end of the scale. Here is how to read it.
Explainer · 2026-07
What happens to a complaint against a New Jersey police officer
New Jersey agencies recorded 82,507 internal affairs outcomes across five years. The largest single category is no outcome at all.
Explainer · 2026-07
What happens when you ask New Jersey police for records
Of 12,883 public records requests filed to New Jersey police through one platform, over half were still marked as waiting for a response.
Explainer · 2026-07
What major discipline in New Jersey actually looks like
Suspension, not termination, is the common outcome. The median suspension is 18 days. 471 officers were fired. Here is the shape of the record.
Explainer · 2026-07
What the Pentagon sent New Jersey police
Nineteen armoured vehicles, 4,628 weapons and 915 pieces of night vision equipment, spread across 179 agencies since 1993.
Explainer · 2026-07
When the chief is the one under investigation
Fourteen New Jersey police chiefs appear in the state's major discipline data from 2021 to 2025. Two were fired. Five left before the discipline landed.
Explainer · 2026-07
Where internal affairs activity concentrates in New Jersey
Two counties reported more internal affairs investigations in the most recent year than the twelve smallest counties combined. Population and department size explain much of it, but not all.
Explainer · 2026-07
The New Jersey towns where police pay looks lower than school pay
Statewide, the median police officer out-earns the median school staff member by 32 percent. Drop to individual departments and 36 of 350 run the other way. Most of them are measuring a clock, not a pay scale.
Explainer · 2026-07
Women are 11% of New Jersey's sworn officers
In 1990 they were under 3%. The FBI has been counting since 1960, and the New Jersey line has been climbing slowly for thirty-five years.