Skip to content
POLICE TRANSPARENCY NJ
Menu

Department profile · Bergen County

Emerson Police Department

Reported as: Emerson PDMunicipal police

Jurisdiction context

Not a civil service jurisdiction

This department is not among the NJCSC Appendix A jurisdictions, so major discipline here follows a different statutory track (generally N.J.S.A. 40A:14 for municipal police), with appeals that usually go to the Superior Court rather than the Civil Service Commission.

See the context on non-civil-service departments.

Reflects the NJCSC Appendix A roster as of 2026-07-04. Context only, not legal advice.

In brief

Emerson Police Department is a municipal police agency in Bergen County. It reported 2 officers named in internal affairs cases in 2025 and 3 investigations that year, a rate of 150 per 100 officers. That ran above the Bergen County median of 125.3 and the 125.9 statewide municipal median, though in a department this small a single case moves the figure. The gap can reflect more misconduct or a fuller record of complaints. None of the 3 investigations detailed for 2025 reported sustained complaints. The allegations were Demeanor, Other Criminal Violation and Differential Treatment. Allegations are not findings.

No major discipline records appear in the 2020-2025 releases, and the absence of records is not a finding. Emerson received a C on the report card, at the 41st percentile among 171 peers in the 15-29 officers group, a medium-confidence grade.

Written by this site strictly from the figures on this page; every number is cited below.

Officers named in IA cases, 2025

2[1]

Distinct officers in that year's IA investigations, not total staffing

IA investigations, 2025

3[1]

Incidents, 2025

3[1]

Major discipline records

0

All years, 2020-2025

Staffing

As reported by the department to the FBI's Law Enforcement Employees (LEE) census, full-time personnel as of October 31 each year. This is a different measurement from the "officers named in IA cases" figure above; see the methodology.

Sworn officers, 2025

0[6]

65 years reported

0 sworn officers in 2025, down from 10 in 1961 (-100%).
Yearsworn officers
196110
196210
196311
196411
196511
196612
196713
196813
196915
197016
197116
197216
197316
197416
197516
197616
197716
197818
197918
198018
198117
198218
198318
198418
198519
198619
198719
198819
198919
199019
199119
199219
199319
199419
199519
199619
199720
199820
199920
200018
200118
200218
200318
200418
200519
200618
200719
200819
200918
201017
201117
201218
201318
201418
201518
201620
201721
201821
201922
202022
202121
202222
202320
202420
20250

Civilian employees, 2025

0[7]

Female sworn officers, 2025

0[8]

Officers per 1,000 residents, 2025

0[9]

Municipal departments only

AnalysisComputed by this site from LEE reported totals; not an official statistic.

How Emerson Police Department's sworn staffing compares with its real peer group (same agency type, similar size band), not an assumed bell curve.

Peer group: Municipal police, 1-14 officers (n=100)

Sworn officers: Municipal police, 1-14 officers
RangeAgencies
0–212
2–43
4–61
6–817
8–1011
10–1215
12–1441

Emerson Police Department: 0 sworn officers: 6th percentile among Municipal police, 1-14 officers (n=100).

The match between this FBI record and this department is this site's inference, not a certified mapping. If it is wrong, we will remove it: corrections.

Officer pay and school-staff pay

County comparison

A separate dataset from the discipline records above: NJ Treasury pension salaries as of March 31, 2026, for the 22 active Emerson Police Department officers in the file.

Median officer salary

$133,745[2]

22 active officers

Median local school staff

$77,960

EMERSON BOROUGH BD OF ED, 125 TPAF members

Against the local district

1.72x

Median officer to median local school staff

Against the county

1.46x

Median officer to Bergen County school-staff median

AnalysisEvery ratio here is computed by this site from as-reported pensionable salaries. The local school figure comes from the pension employer "EMERSON BOROUGH BD OF ED", linked to this municipality only because exactly one district in the county resolves to it. A pay comparison is not a statement about either budget. The full county comparison, including the distribution and the tenure-adjusted figure, is on the Bergen County pay page.

Military surplus equipment (1033 program)

No 1033 transfers recorded. No surplus-equipment transfers appear for this agency under a high-confidence name match in the Defense Logistics Agency's file as of 2026-06-30. That can mean the agency received nothing through the program, or that a recipient name in the federal file did not confidently match this department. See the methodology for how the match is made, or the statewide 1033 overview for how the program spreads across New Jersey.

Internal affairs investigations by year

counts

Internal affairs investigations reported by Emerson Police Department, by year
Categorycounts
20213
20227
20234
20246
20253

Incidents

3 in 2025

Internal affairs incidents reported by Emerson Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20213
20225
20234
20245
20253

Officers on IA rows

3 in 2025

Officers listed on the officer-level internal affairs rows for Emerson Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
2021not reported
2022not reported
2023not reported
20246
20253
Analysis

Computed by this site from the two figures the agency reports each year. Not a misconduct rate: it describes how an agency resolved what it investigated.

share of total · 5 reported years

Share of internal affairs investigations sustained by Emerson Police Department, by year
Yearshare of total
20210
202228.571
20230
202483.333
20250

Statewide, 19.5 percent of investigations reported a sustained complaint in 2025. How dispositions break down statewide.

Complaint mix, 2025

Most serious allegation per investigation, as categorized by the reporting agency. Officer-level rows list 3 officers involved.

Most serious allegation

Most serious allegations reported by Emerson Police Department, 2025
Demeanor1
Other Criminal Violation1
Differential Treatment1
AdministrativeConduct / dutyRights / integrityViolence / criminal

Statewide category pages: Demeanor · Other Criminal Violation · Differential Treatment

Internal disposition

Internal dispositions reported by Emerson Police Department, 2025
not provided1
Exonerated1
Not Sustained1

Allegations by year, 2021 to 2025

AnalysisRanked and folded by this site. The counts inside each panel are as reported.

Other Criminal Violation

5 of 23

Other Criminal Violation allegations reported by Emerson Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20212
20220
20231
20241
20251

Other Departmental Rule Violation

5 of 23

Other Departmental Rule Violation allegations reported by Emerson Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20211
20221
20231
20242
20250

Differential Treatment

4 of 23

Differential Treatment allegations reported by Emerson Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20210
20221
20231
20241
20251

Improper Arrest

3 of 23

Improper Arrest allegations reported by Emerson Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20210
20222
20230
20241
20250

Other (4 categories)

6 of 23

Other (4 categories) allegations reported by Emerson Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20210
20223
20231
20241
20251

Against peers, 2025

How this grade was built →
Internal affairs investigations per 100 IA-investigated officers, 2025 (investigations per 100 IA-investigated officers)
Emerson Police Department150.0
County median, municipal police (60)125.3
NJ median, municipal police (445)125.9

Investigations per 100 officers named in that year's IA investigations (the Attorney General's own "Number of Officers" field, a distinct-officer count drawn from the IA case data itself, not a department headcount). A higher number is ambiguous on its own: it can reflect more misconduct, or a stronger internal reporting culture. Medians are computed within the same agency type only.

AnalysisA second, independent rate using FBI-reported staffing instead.

3 investigations reported for 2025[1] ÷ 0 sworn officers the department reported to the FBI for 2025[21] = Infinity per 100 FBI-reported sworn officers. This is a genuinely different denominator from the rate above, not a correction of it; the two should not be added or averaged together. See the methodology for why these two officer counts diverge.

Report card

Grade C: Middle fifth of peers

On reported IA volume and discipline severity; see methodology

Combined standing
41st percentile of 171 peers
Confidence
Medium confidence
  • small agency; per-officer rates swing widely on a handful of cases

Where this agency falls among its peers

The actual spread of discipline severity across Emerson Police Department's real peer group, not an assumed bell curve. If the group is skewed, it is shown skewed.

Peer group: Municipal police, 15-29 officers (n=171)

Discipline severity: Municipal police, 15-29 officers
RangeAgencies
0–50120
50–10024
100–15015
150–2007
200–2503
250–3002

Emerson Police Department: 0 severity-weighted discipline per 100 IA-investigated officers: 25th percentile among Municipal police, 15-29 officers (n=171).

How the grade is built

Three components, each a percentile within the peer group. The combined standing is their weighted mean, re-ranked among peers; the grade is the fifth of the peer group it lands in.

IA volumeweight 40%

41st percentileof 171 peers

115.0 investigations per 100 officers (multi-year mean)

Internal affairs investigations per 100 reported officers, averaged over the years where the agency reported both figures.

Discipline severityweight 40%

25th percentileof 171 peers

0.0 severity-weighted discipline per 100 officers, 2020-2025

Major discipline records weighted by sanction (termination 4, demotion 3, suspension 2, other 1) per 100 officers.

Allegation severityweight 20%

93rd percentileof 171 peers

2.74 mean severity tier (1 low - 4 critical)

Mean severity tier of IA allegations across 2021-2025, using the published tier map; unknown values excluded.

What this grade can and can't tell you

  • The underlying data is self-reported by agencies, one yearly snapshot at a time.
  • Allegations are not findings; many complaints end unfounded, exonerated, or not sustained.
  • There is no arrest or call-volume denominator in this data, so nothing here is a per-capita misconduct rate. A genuinely independent staffing-based rate, sourced from the FBI rather than this grade's own data, appears above when available. It is a different measurement, not a more accurate version of the grade.
  • A higher internal affairs volume is ambiguous: it can indicate more misconduct, or a more robust oversight and reporting culture. The grade weighs it anyway, because volume is what the record offers; that choice is published, not hidden.
  • The grade is one lens. The records it reads are on this page above.

Where this agency ranks

AnalysisRankings compare agencies of the same type only, on figures as reported. A high rank is reported volume, not a verdict.[22] How each metric is defined.
This agency's rank on each metric, among agencies of the same type
MetricValueRank
IA per 100 investigated officers2025150.098th of 445 municipal police
IA investigations20253348th of 445 municipal police
IA incidents20253333rd of 445 municipal police
Sworn per 1,000 residentslatest reported census year0.00449th of 460 municipal police
Police pay vs school paypension snapshot 2026-03-311.46x165th of 415 municipal police
OPRA requests recordedOPRAmachine, 2017 to present17232nd of 458 municipal police

Major discipline records

No major discipline records appear for this agency in the 2020-2025 releases. Absence of records is not a finding; see the methodology for what this data does and does not cover.

Public records requests

Records requests about this department filed through OPRAmachine, an independent site that files Open Public Records Act requests in public and publishes the responses.[3] This is a third-party, user-generated source, separate in origin from the Attorney General records elsewhere on this page.

Current as of 12 July 2026. These figures are a point-in-time snapshot and do not update: requests filed to OPRAmachine after that date do not appear here. For live activity, see this body on OPRAmachine.

This department has no separate listing on OPRAmachine. Records requests for it are handled through Emerson Borough, the municipal records custodian, which also fields requests about permits, property, and code enforcement. Only the 17 requests whose subject line indicates it concerns the police department are counted below. The other 42 filed to Emerson Borough are about something else and are not shown.

Police-related requests

17[3]

Identified by subject line, of 59 filed to Emerson Borough

Most recent request

December 2025[3]

First recorded May 2020

Awaiting a response

13[3]

Requests with no response recorded yet

What happened to those requests

Statuses as recorded on OPRAmachine. They are set by the person who filed the request when they classify what came back, not by the agency and not by any court. They describe the fate of a records request and nothing else.

Recorded outcomes of police-related records requests to Emerson Borough (requests)
Awaiting agency response13
Under internal review2
Requester reported success1
Requester reported partial success1

Recent requests

The 12 most recent police-related requests to Emerson Borough, by date and recorded status. Each was written by a member of the public. A request is a question somebody asked. It is not a finding, not an allegation this site makes, and not evidence that anything happened.

  1. 2025-12-15Awaiting agency response
  2. 2025-10-05Awaiting agency response
  3. 2025-09-13Awaiting agency response
  4. 2025-03-14Awaiting agency response
  5. 2024-06-04Under internal review
  6. 2023-12-16Awaiting agency response
  7. 2023-12-16Awaiting agency response
  8. 2023-10-10Awaiting agency response
  9. 2023-08-31Awaiting agency response
  10. 2023-08-31Awaiting agency response
  11. 2023-02-10Under internal review
  12. 2021-04-20Requester reported success
Show what each request asked for, as the requester wrote it

These titles are quoted from OPRAmachine exactly as the requester typed them. They are the requester's words, not this site's, and some describe what the requester believed or suspected. Nothing here has been established as fact.

File your own records request

Anyone can request records from this municipality under the Open Public Records Act. This link opens a request on OPRAmachine, pre-filled with a neutral starting point you can edit or replace before you send it. The request, and any response, will be published there.

File an OPRA request about this department

See every request filed to Emerson Borough on OPRAmachine.

What this section can and can't tell you

  • A request is not a finding. Every entry records what a member of the public asked for. None of it establishes that an agency did anything, and none of it is an allegation this site is making.
  • Statuses come from the requester, not the agency. On OPRAmachine the person who filed the request classifies the response they got, so “successful” means they said they got what they asked for. It is not the agency's word and not an adjudication.
  • Request volume is not a measure of misconduct. A long list usually reflects public interest, local journalism, or one determined requester. A short list usually means few people have asked.
  • This covers OPRAmachine only. Most OPRA requests in New Jersey are filed directly with agencies and never appear here, so this is a floor, not a total.
  • It is frozen at 12 July 2026. The figures come from a snapshot of OPRAmachine taken on that date and nothing refreshes them, so anything filed since is missing. Treat every number here as a lower bound that is only getting further out of date.
  • The count is an undercount, by design. Requests to Emerson Borough are sorted by subject line, because that custodian also handles permits, property, and code enforcement. A request that is genuinely about the police but carries a vague subject line, and many do read only “OPRA Request,” is not counted here. The sorting is this site's own reading of the request titles, not a fact from the source, and it is deliberately cautious: it would rather miss a police request than show you somebody's building permit.

The match between this OPRAmachine body and this department is this site's inference, not a certified mapping. If it is wrong, we will remove it: corrections.

Questions and answers

What is a summary of Emerson Police Department's internal affairs and discipline record?

Emerson Police Department is a municipal police agency in Bergen County. It reported 2 officers named in internal affairs cases in 2025 and 3 investigations that year, a rate of 150 per 100 officers. That ran above the Bergen County median of 125.3 and the 125.9 statewide municipal median, though in a department this small a single case moves the figure. The gap can reflect more misconduct or a fuller record of complaints. None of the 3 investigations detailed for 2025 reported sustained complaints. The allegations were Demeanor, Other Criminal Violation and Differential Treatment. Allegations are not findings. No major discipline records appear in the 2020-2025 releases, and the absence of records is not a finding. Emerson received a C on the report card, at the 41st percentile among 171 peers in the 15-29 officers group, a medium-confidence grade.

How many internal affairs investigations did Emerson Police Department report in 2025?

Emerson Police Department reported 3 internal affairs investigations in 2025, according to New Jersey Attorney General data. 2 distinct officers were named in that year's IA investigations.

How many major discipline records does Emerson Police Department have?

No major discipline records appear for Emerson Police Department in the Attorney General's 2020-2025 releases. Absence of records is not a finding; discipline is listed only after all appeals conclude.

How many officers does Emerson Police Department have?

Emerson Police Department reported 0 full-time sworn officers to the FBI's Law Enforcement Employees census for 2025. That is 0 sworn officers per 1,000 residents. This is a different measurement from the "officers named in IA cases" figure elsewhere on this page, which counts distinct officers in that year's internal affairs investigations, not total staffing.

What does Emerson Police Department pay its officers compared with local school staff?

The median pensionable salary for the 22 active Emerson Police Department officers in the NJ Treasury pension file is $133,745. The median for the 125 TPAF-enrolled staff at EMERSON BOROUGH BD OF ED is $77,960, a ratio of 1.72x. Against the Bergen County school-staff median the ratio is 1.46x. These are pensionable base salaries: they exclude overtime, stipends, longevity and leave payouts for both groups, and a school contract year and a police work year are different lengths. TPAF covers certificated school staff, not only classroom teachers.

Sources

  1. [1]New Jersey Internal Affairs Agency Totals, 2021-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 2071. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
  2. [2]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. ↩
  3. [3]Records-request activity for Emerson Borough. OPRAmachine (opramachine.com), an independent public-records platform. Publicly visible requests only. Point-in-time snapshot taken 2026-07-12 from a database export dated 2026-07-11. Not updated after that date; see opramachine.com for current activity. ↩
  4. [4]New Jersey Internal Affairs Officers, 2024-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Officer counts summed across every Emerson PD row. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
  5. [5]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.
  6. [6]FBI Law Enforcement Employees (LEE), New Jersey subset. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Row 8143. Derived from the public Law Enforcement Employees (LEE) / Police Employee Data dataset (1960-2025), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/. ↩
  7. [7]FBI Law Enforcement Employees (LEE), New Jersey subset. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Row 8143. Derived from the public Law Enforcement Employees (LEE) / Police Employee Data dataset (1960-2025), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/. ↩
  8. [8]FBI Law Enforcement Employees (LEE), New Jersey subset. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Row 8143. Derived from the public Law Enforcement Employees (LEE) / Police Employee Data dataset (1960-2025), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/. ↩
  9. [9]FBI Law Enforcement Employees (LEE), New Jersey subset. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Row 8143. Derived from the public Law Enforcement Employees (LEE) / Police Employee Data dataset (1960-2025), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/. ↩
  10. [10]New Jersey Internal Affairs Agency Totals, 2021-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 36. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
  11. [11]New Jersey Internal Affairs Agency Totals, 2021-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 1052. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
  12. [12]New Jersey Internal Affairs Agency Totals, 2021-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 1566. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
  13. [13]New Jersey Internal Affairs Agency Totals, 2021-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 542. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
  14. [14]New Jersey Internal Affairs Agency Totals, 2021-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 2071. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
  15. [15]New Jersey Internal Affairs Investigations, 2024-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 1. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. Aggregated from every Emerson PD row for 2025; row 1 is the header. ↩
  16. [16]New Jersey Internal Affairs Data Download, 2021-2023. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 1. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. Aggregated from every Emerson PD row for 2021. ↩
  17. [17]New Jersey Internal Affairs Data Download, 2021-2023. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 1. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. Aggregated from every Emerson PD row for 2022. ↩
  18. [18]New Jersey Internal Affairs Data Download, 2021-2023. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 1. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. Aggregated from every Emerson PD row for 2023. ↩
  19. [19]New Jersey Internal Affairs Investigations, 2024-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 1. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. Aggregated from every Emerson PD row for 2024. ↩
  20. [20]New Jersey Internal Affairs Investigations, 2024-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 1. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. Aggregated from every Emerson PD row for 2025. ↩
  21. [21]FBI Law Enforcement Employees (LEE), New Jersey subset. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Row 8143. Derived from the public Law Enforcement Employees (LEE) / Police Employee Data dataset (1960-2025), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/. ↩
  22. [22]Ranks computed by this site over the Attorney General internal affairs agency totals and major discipline releases, within agency type. Each ranking page lists every agency and its source rows. ↩