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County profile

Cape May County

12 law enforcement agencies reported internal affairs activity for 2025.

IA investigations, 2025

171[1]

Officers named in IA cases, 2025

142[1]

Major discipline records

64[2]

All years, 2020-2025

Terminations

11[2]

All years, 2020-2025

Internal affairs investigations in Cape May County, by year

counts · 5 reported years

Internal affairs investigations reported by Cape May County agencies, by year
Yearcounts
2021176
2022202
2023187
2024141
2025171

Where this county sits

AnalysisOrdinals compare the 21 counties on figures as reported. A county total also tracks population and agency count, so a high ordinal is scale as much as anything else. Map every county measure.
Cape May County's standing on each county measure, among the 21 counties
MeasureValueRank
IA per 1,000 residents20251.805th of 21 counties
Discipline per 1,000 residents2020-20250.673rd of 21 counties
Officers named per 1,00020251.493rd of 21 counties
Per officer named20251.2021st of 21 counties
Not reporting20250%1st of 21 counties
IA investigations202517117th of 21 counties
IA incidents202515117th of 21 counties
Officers named202514217th of 21 counties
Major discipline2020-20256412th of 21 counties
Terminations2020-20251110th of 21 counties

Agencies in Cape May County

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Law enforcement agencies in Cape May County with 2025 internal affairs totals and 2020-2025 major discipline record counts
AgencyTypeOfficersInvestigationsIncidentsMajor discipline
Wildwood Police DepartmentCivil serviceMunicipal police2934 (96th percentile among reporting agencies in Cape May County)349 (86th percentile among agencies in Cape May County)
Cape May County Sheriff's OfficeEncrypts radioCivil serviceCounty sheriff2231 (88th percentile among reporting agencies in Cape May County)2621 (96th percentile among agencies in Cape May County)
Ocean City Police DepartmentCivil serviceMunicipal police1921 (79th percentile among reporting agencies in Cape May County)199 (86th percentile among agencies in Cape May County)
Middle Township Police DepartmentCivil serviceMunicipal police1619 (71st percentile among reporting agencies in Cape May County)188 (71st percentile among agencies in Cape May County)
North Wildwood City Police DepartmentCivil serviceMunicipal police1316 (63rd percentile among reporting agencies in Cape May County)130 (18th percentile among agencies in Cape May County)
Wildwood Crest Borough Police DepartmentCivil serviceMunicipal police1011 (54th percentile among reporting agencies in Cape May County)110 (18th percentile among agencies in Cape May County)
Lower Township Police DepartmentCivil serviceMunicipal police710 (42nd percentile among reporting agencies in Cape May County)108 (71st percentile among agencies in Cape May County)
Sea Isle City Police DepartmentCivil serviceMunicipal police910 (42nd percentile among reporting agencies in Cape May County)73 (61st percentile among agencies in Cape May County)
Cape May City Police DepartmentCivil serviceMunicipal police99 (29th percentile among reporting agencies in Cape May County)32 (46th percentile among agencies in Cape May County)
Avalon Borough Police DepartmentMunicipal police45 (21st percentile among reporting agencies in Cape May County)52 (46th percentile among agencies in Cape May County)
Cape May County Prosecutor's OfficeCounty prosecutor33 (13th percentile among reporting agencies in Cape May County)32 (46th percentile among agencies in Cape May County)
West Wildwood Borough Police DepartmentMunicipal police12 (4th percentile among reporting agencies in Cape May County)20 (18th percentile among agencies in Cape May County)
Cape May County Correctional CenterCivil serviceCorrectionsnot reportednot reportednot reported0 (18th percentile among agencies in Cape May County)
Stone Harbor Borough Police DepartmentMunicipal policenot reportednot reportednot reported0 (18th percentile among agencies in Cape May County)
FewerMore

Shading on Investigations and Major discipline compares each agency to the other 13 reporting agencies in Cape May County only. Not a grade or a judgment.

IA totals are for 2025; major discipline counts span 2020-2025. 10 of these agencies are in civil service jurisdictions governed by the Title 4A discipline framework (see the full local jurisdiction roster). 1 of these agencies encrypt their radio communications (source: PoliceRadioEncryption.com).

Police pay and school-staff pay

Full comparison

A separate dataset from the discipline records above: NJ Treasury pension salaries as of March 31, 2026, for 511 active police officers and 1,441 active TPAF-enrolled school staff whose employers the pension system places in Cape May County.

Median police officer

$90,128[6]

Pensionable base salary

Median school staff

$82,030

Pensionable base salary

Ratio

1.10x

$8,098 a year

School staff below the median officer

60%

Share of the county's TPAF members

AnalysisThe ratio is computed by this site from as-reported pensionable salaries. It is a pay comparison, not a statement about either budget. The percentiles, the distribution shape, the tenure-adjusted figure and the department detail are on the full Cape May County comparison.

Military surplus equipment (1033 program)

Surplus military equipment transferred to Cape MayCounty agencies under the Defense Department's 1033 program, as recorded by the Defense Logistics Agency.

Total recorded value

$353,049[4]

Original DoD cost, not market value

Tactical equipment value

$100,617[4]

4 of 8 line items classed tactical

Recipient agencies

2[4]

Matched at high confidence

Recorded 1033 transfers to Cape May County agencies, by recipient
AgencyLine itemsTactical valueTotal value
Ocean City Police Department6$100,617$160,117
Sea Isle City Police Department2$0$192,932

Transfer window for the county: 2018-2020, earliest to latest recorded ship date. Statewide totals, per-county comparisons, and top equipment categories are on the 1033 program overview.

Fatal encounters recorded in Cape May County

From the independent Fatal Encounters dataset, 2000-2021

Fatal Encounters is an independent, crowdsourced journalism project that documented deaths during police encounters nationwide from 2000 until its collection ended in December 2021, so the dataset is frozen: no records after 2021 means the dataset ended, not that these deaths ended.[5] It records all deaths that occurred during a police encounter of any kind: vehicle pursuits, suicides in police presence, and medical emergencies are included alongside uses of force. The 10 records below appear here because the county the project recorded is Cape May County. A listing is not a misconduct finding, and it is not connected to the Attorney General discipline records on this page. See the methodology. Each record links to its own page with the full as-reported details.

Fatal Encounters records the dataset places in Cape May County, 2000 to 2021The 10 geocoded Cape May County records from the Fatal Encounters dataset, as points on the state. The record list below carries every record's details.

10 of 10 records plotted.

Fatal Encounters records the dataset places in Cape May County, 2000 to 2021
Fatal Encounters records the dataset places in Cape May County, 2000 to 2021: records by county
CountyRecords
Cape May10

Individual records, with names, dates, cities, and the agencies the source names, are in the record list on this page.

2012 (1 record)

Fatal Encounters records for Cape May County, 2012
Name as recordedDateLocation as recordedHighest level of force as recorded
Name withheld by police2012-02-21Ocean CityGunshot

2011 (1 record)

Fatal Encounters records for Cape May County, 2011
Name as recordedDateLocation as recordedHighest level of force as recorded
James J. O'Neill2011-08-29North Cape MayStabbed

2010 (1 record)

Fatal Encounters records for Cape May County, 2010
Name as recordedDateLocation as recordedHighest level of force as recorded
Douglas J. Wnek2010-10-03Middle TownshipGunshot

2006 (2 records)

Fatal Encounters records for Cape May County, 2006
Name as recordedDateLocation as recordedHighest level of force as recorded
Jacqueline Becker2006-09-27MarmoraVehicle
Christina Becker2006-09-27MarmoraVehicle

2005 (1 record)

Fatal Encounters records for Cape May County, 2005
Name as recordedDateLocation as recordedHighest level of force as recorded
Joseph Esposito2005-07-03WildwoodGunshot

2004 (3 records)

Fatal Encounters records for Cape May County, 2004
Name as recordedDateLocation as recordedHighest level of force as recorded
Jefferson Thurman McNelly2004-10-28Sea Isle CityGunshot
Pablo Burrios-Salas2004-09-18WildwoodVehicle
Robert Peper "Bo" Fisher2004-09-04Sea Isle CityVehicle

2002 (1 record)

Fatal Encounters records for Cape May County, 2002
Name as recordedDateLocation as recordedHighest level of force as recorded
Name withheld by police2002-01-09Rio GrandeGunshot

All 10 of these records, and every New Jersey record in the dataset, are on the fatal encounters index.

Questions and answers

How many internal affairs investigations did Cape May County report in 2025?

Agencies in Cape May County reported 171 internal affairs investigations in 2025, across 12 reporting agencies, according to New Jersey Attorney General data.

How many police major discipline records are there in Cape May County?

Cape May County agencies have 64 major discipline records in the Attorney General's 2020-2025 releases, including 11 terminations. These are final, adjudicated actions.

Which Cape May County police departments encrypt their radio?

1 agencies in Cape May County are listed as encrypting their radio communications by PoliceRadioEncryption.com. The full list is on the encrypted departments page.

How much military surplus equipment have Cape May County police received?

2 agencies in Cape May County matched recorded DoD 1033 program transfers worth $353,049 at original acquisition cost, per the Defense Logistics Agency's public file. These are transfers received over time, not a current inventory, and receiving surplus equipment is not misconduct.

How many deaths during police encounters are recorded in Cape May County?

The independent Fatal Encounters dataset contains 10 records whose recorded county is Cape May County, covering 2000 through 2021. Fatal Encounters is a crowdsourced journalism project, not a government source, and it documented deaths that occurred during police encounters of any kind. It stopped collecting in December 2021, so the absence of later records means the dataset ended.

Sources

  1. [1]New Jersey Internal Affairs Agency Totals, 2021-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 1. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. County totals summed over Cape May County agency rows for 2025; row 1 is the header.
  2. [2]New Jersey Major Discipline Data, 2020-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Major Discipline Data", row 1. Snapshot retrieved 2026-07-03. Record counts from Cape May County rows, all years; row 1 is the header.
  3. [3]New Jersey county boundaries. New Jersey Office of Information Technology, Office of GIS (NJOGIS). NJ_Counties_3857 (FeatureServer layer 0), https://services2.arcgis.com/XVOqAjTOJ5P6ngMu/arcgis/rest/services/NJ_Counties_3857/FeatureServer/0. 2020 boundary delineation. Retrieved 2026-07-27. Boundaries are generalized for display. This data set is not a survey document and must not be used as such. The polygons do not represent legal boundaries.
  4. [4]DoD 1033 Program transfers (LESO Public Information), New Jersey sheet. Defense Logistics Agency (U.S. Department of Defense). LESO Public Information: DISP_AllStatesAndTerritories, quarterly file as of 2026-06-30; recorded ship dates 1993-2026. Retrieved 2026-07-10. https://www.dla.mil/Disposition-Services/Offers/Law-Enforcement/Public-Information/
  5. [5]Fatal Encounters, New Jersey subset. Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org). Fatal Encounters national dataset (2000-2021); collection ended December 2021. Retrieved 2026-07-10. https://fatalencounters.org/
  6. [6]YourMoney Active Pension Members (PFRS/SPRS subset) and YourMoney Active Pension Members (TPAF subset, names removed). New Jersey Department of the Treasury. Both snapshots as of March 31, 2026. Derived from the public YourMoney Active Pension Members dataset, https://www.yourmoney.nj.gov/. Figures are computed by this site from as-reported pensionable salaries; the row-by-row account of what entered each figure is published at /data/pay-comparison.json.