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Department profile · Middlesex County

Highland Park Police Department

Reported as: Highland Park 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.

Radio encryption

Highland Park Police Department encrypts its radio communications (P25 AES-256, all operations), according to PoliceRadioEncryption.com, as of 2026-03-06 (unverified).

AnalysisThis site treats radio encryption as a meaningful transparency signal. When a department closes its radio traffic to the public, the public loses a real-time window into how it operates. That is context for reading the discipline and internal affairs records on this page, not a figure drawn from them.

In brief

Highland Park Police Department in Middlesex County, a municipal police agency, reported 13 internal affairs investigations in 2025 involving 9 officers named in those cases. The rate of 144.4 per 100 officers exceeds the Middlesex County median of 125 and the 125.9 municipal median. The higher figure admits two readings: a greater volume of misconduct, or a department that captures more of its complaints on paper. Of the 13 investigations detailed for 2025, 3 reported sustained complaints. Demeanor and Other Departmental Rule Violation were the leading allegation categories, with Excessive Force also recorded.

One major discipline record appears across the 2020-2025 releases, from 2022. Highland Park received a C on the report card, at the 54th 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

9[1]

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

IA investigations, 2025

13[1]

Incidents, 2025

11[1]

Major discipline records

1

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

27[6]

66 years reported

27 sworn officers in 2025, up from 18 in 1960 (+50%).
Yearsworn officers
196018
196118
196220
196320
196421
196523
196623
196724
196826
196928
197029
197129
197229
197329
197430
197533
197629
197727
197832
197929
198030
198129
198228
198328
198430
198529
198631
198729
198830
198931
199027
199131
199231
199330
199429
199529
199628
199726
199828
199928
200028
200127
200228
200329
200429
200528
200628
200730
200827
200927
201026
201125
201226
201327
201427
201526
201628
201727
201826
201928
202028
202126
202227
202327
202427
202527

Civilian employees, 2025

7[7]

0.26 per sworn officer

Female sworn officers, 2025

2[8]

7.4% of sworn officers

Officers per 1,000 residents, 2025

1.75[9]

Municipal departments only

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

How Highland Park 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, 15-29 officers (n=166)

Sworn officers: Municipal police, 15-29 officers
RangeAgencies
14–1617
16–1820
18–2027
20–2217
22–2426
24–2624
26–2816
28–3019

Highland Park Police Department: 27 sworn officers: 86th percentile among Municipal police, 15-29 officers (n=166).

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 28 active Highland Park Police Department officers in the file.

Median officer salary

$131,704[2]

28 active officers

Median local school staff

$86,868

HIGHLAND PARK BD OF ED, 191 TPAF members

Against the local district

1.52x

Median officer to median local school staff

Against the county

1.49x

Median officer to Middlesex 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 "HIGHLAND PARK 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 Middlesex 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 Highland Park Police Department, by year
Categorycounts
202116
20226
20236
20245
202513

Incidents

11 in 2025

Internal affairs incidents reported by Highland Park Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
202114
20226
20234
20243
202511

Officers on IA rows

13 in 2025

Officers listed on the officer-level internal affairs rows for Highland Park Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
2021not reported
2022not reported
2023not reported
20245
202513
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 Highland Park Police Department, by year
Yearshare of total
20210
202233.333
202366.667
2024100
202523.077

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 13 officers involved.

Most serious allegation

Most serious allegations reported by Highland Park Police Department, 2025
Demeanor3
Other Departmental Rule Violation3
Excessive Force2
False Documentation/Falsifying A Report (Criminal)2
Improper Arrest1
Improper Search1
Neglect of Duty1
AdministrativeConduct / dutyRights / integrityViolence / criminal

Statewide category pages: Demeanor · Other Departmental Rule Violation · Excessive Force · False Documentation/Falsifying A Report (Criminal) · Improper Arrest · Improper Search · Neglect of Duty

Internal disposition

Internal dispositions reported by Highland Park Police Department, 2025
Unfounded5
Exonerated4
Sustained3
Not Sustained1

Allegations by year, 2021 to 2025

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

Other Departmental Rule Violation

18 of 46

Other Departmental Rule Violation allegations reported by Highland Park Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20219
20220
20232
20244
20253

Demeanor

11 of 46

Demeanor allegations reported by Highland Park Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20215
20223
20230
20240
20253

Differential Treatment

3 of 46

Differential Treatment allegations reported by Highland Park Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20211
20221
20231
20240
20250

Excessive Force

3 of 46

Excessive Force allegations reported by Highland Park Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20210
20220
20231
20240
20252

Other (8 categories)

11 of 46

Other (8 categories) allegations reported by Highland Park Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20211
20222
20232
20241
20255

Against peers, 2025

How this grade was built →
Internal affairs investigations per 100 IA-investigated officers, 2025 (investigations per 100 IA-investigated officers)
Highland Park Police Department144.4
County median, municipal police (25)125.0
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.

13 investigations reported for 2025[1] ÷ 27 sworn officers the department reported to the FBI for 2025[21] = 48.1 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
54th 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 Highland Park 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

Highland Park Police Department: 27.027 severity-weighted discipline per 100 IA-investigated officers: 57th 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%

48th percentileof 171 peers

119.6 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%

57th percentileof 171 peers

27.0 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%

49th percentileof 171 peers

2.00 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 officers2025144.4137th of 445 municipal police
IA investigations202513172nd of 445 municipal police
IA incidents202511163rd of 445 municipal police
Major discipline2020-20251184th of 282 municipal police
Sworn per 1,000 residentslatest reported census year1.75383rd of 460 municipal police
Police pay vs school paypension snapshot 2026-03-311.49x149th of 415 municipal police
OPRA requests recordedOPRAmachine, 2017 to present28108th of 458 municipal police

Major discipline records

0 major discipline records in 2025, holding roughly steady.
Yearmajor discipline records
20200
20210
20221
20230
20240
20250

0 major discipline records in 2025, holding roughly steady.

Major discipline records reported by Highland Park Police Department, 2020-2025
YearOfficerRankSanction as reportedSrc
2022Jason CulverSergeantSuspended 45 days[23]

Every name links to the officer's record page with the agency's full synopsis and citation.

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 Highland Park Borough, the municipal records custodian, which also fields requests about permits, property, and code enforcement. Only the 28 requests whose subject line indicates it concerns the police department are counted below. The other 158 filed to Highland Park Borough are about something else and are not shown.

Police-related requests

28[3]

Identified by subject line, of 186 filed to Highland Park Borough

Most recent request

May 2026[3]

First recorded September 2019

Awaiting a response

14[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 Highland Park Borough (requests)
Awaiting agency response14
Requester reported success11
Requester reported partial success2
Delivery error1

Recent requests

The 12 most recent police-related requests to Highland Park 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. 2026-05-05Awaiting agency response
  2. 2026-02-04Awaiting agency response
  3. 2025-12-30Requester reported success
  4. 2025-12-02Awaiting agency response
  5. 2025-09-16Requester reported success
  6. 2025-04-25Awaiting agency response
  7. 2025-02-16Awaiting agency response
  8. 2025-02-13Requester reported success
  9. 2025-01-13Awaiting agency response
  10. 2024-03-06Requester reported success
  11. 2024-01-04Requester reported success
  12. 2023-08-31Awaiting agency response
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 Highland Park 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 Highland Park 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 Highland Park Police Department's internal affairs and discipline record?

Highland Park Police Department in Middlesex County, a municipal police agency, reported 13 internal affairs investigations in 2025 involving 9 officers named in those cases. The rate of 144.4 per 100 officers exceeds the Middlesex County median of 125 and the 125.9 municipal median. The higher figure admits two readings: a greater volume of misconduct, or a department that captures more of its complaints on paper. Of the 13 investigations detailed for 2025, 3 reported sustained complaints. Demeanor and Other Departmental Rule Violation were the leading allegation categories, with Excessive Force also recorded. One major discipline record appears across the 2020-2025 releases, from 2022. Highland Park received a C on the report card, at the 54th percentile among 171 peers in the 15-29 officers group, a medium-confidence grade.

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

Highland Park Police Department reported 13 internal affairs investigations in 2025, according to New Jersey Attorney General data. 9 distinct officers were named in that year's IA investigations.

How many major discipline records does Highland Park Police Department have?

Highland Park Police Department has 1 major discipline records in the Attorney General's 2020-2025 releases, of which 0 were terminations. These are final, adjudicated actions, not allegations.

Does Highland Park Police Department encrypt its radio communications?

According to PoliceRadioEncryption.com, Highland Park Police Department encrypts all of its radio communications (P25 AES-256), as recorded on 2026-03-06. This site treats radio encryption as a transparency signal, which is analysis, not a figure from the discipline data.

How many officers does Highland Park Police Department have?

Highland Park Police Department reported 27 full-time sworn officers to the FBI's Law Enforcement Employees census for 2025, 7.4% of them female. That is 1.75 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 Highland Park Police Department pay its officers compared with local school staff?

The median pensionable salary for the 28 active Highland Park Police Department officers in the NJ Treasury pension file is $131,704. The median for the 191 TPAF-enrolled staff at HIGHLAND PARK BD OF ED is $86,868, a ratio of 1.52x. Against the Middlesex County school-staff median the ratio is 1.49x. 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 2307. 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 Highland Park 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 Highland Park 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 8394. 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 8394. 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 8394. 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 8394. 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 274. 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 1292. 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 1795. 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 777. 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 2307. 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 Highland Park 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 Highland Park 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 Highland Park 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 Highland Park 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 Highland Park 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 Highland Park PD row for 2025. ↩
  21. [21]FBI Law Enforcement Employees (LEE), New Jersey subset. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Row 8394. 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. ↩
  23. [23]New Jersey Major Discipline Data, 2020-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Major Discipline Data", row 2228. Snapshot retrieved 2026-07-03. ↩