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Department profile · Bergen County

Hillsdale Police Department

Reported as: Hillsdale 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.

Officers named in IA cases, 2024

4[1]

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

IA investigations, 2024

4[1]

Incidents, 2024

3[1]

Major discipline records

2

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

26[6]

65 years reported

26 sworn officers in 2025, up from 11 in 1960 (+136%).
Yearsworn officers
196011
1961not reported
196215
196315
196415
196518
196618
196719
196819
196921
197022
197122
197223
197323
197423
197523
197622
197722
197822
197922
198022
198122
198221
198320
198419
198519
198619
198719
198819
198921
199021
199121
199219
199321
199420
199519
199618
199718
199818
199918
200019
200120
200220
200319
200420
200520
200620
200720
200820
200920
201020
201119
201216
201316
201418
201518
201619
201718
201819
201919
202020
202118
202224
202322
202426
202526

Civilian employees, 2025

1[7]

0.04 per sworn officer

Female sworn officers, 2025

4[8]

15.4% of sworn officers

Officers per 1,000 residents, 2025

2.53[9]

Municipal departments only

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

How Hillsdale 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

Hillsdale Police Department: 26 sworn officers: 81st 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 22 active Hillsdale Police Department officers in the file.

Median officer salary

$91,052[3]

22 active officers

Median local school staff

$87,806

HILLSDALE BOROUGH BD OF ED, 150 TPAF members

Against the local district

1.04x

Median officer to median local school staff

Against the county

0.99x

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 "HILLSDALE 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)

In brief

Written by this site from the figures below.

Hillsdale Police Department received two recorded line items through the federal surplus program in 2015, both listed under Radio and television communication equipment, except airborne. Their recorded value is $118,773 in original Department of Defense acquisition cost rather than current or market value, and none of it falls into the categories this site classes as tactical. These are transfers the department received, not a current inventory, and non-controlled items may be disposed of after one year. Receiving surplus equipment through the program is not misconduct, and this federal data is separate in origin from the Attorney General discipline records on this page.

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

Total recorded value

$118,773[2]

Original DoD cost, not market value

Tactical equipment value

$0[2]

0 of 2 line items classed tactical

Transfer window

2015[2]

Earliest to latest recorded ship date

Quantities received, by unit of issue: 9 items (Each). Units of issue differ (an item and a kit are not the same thing), so no single combined item count exists.

Top categories by recorded value

Top 1033 equipment categories received by Hillsdale Police Department, by recorded value (original DoD acquisition cost, dollars)
Radio and television communication equipment, except airborne118,773 mundane

Categories received: tactical vs mundane

Each category is classed tactical or mundane by this site's published classification of its Federal Supply Class. Much of what moves through the program is mundane surplus (tools, office and medical equipment); the tactical rows are what the Militarization Index below measures.

1033 equipment categories received by Hillsdale Police Department, grouped tactical vs mundane
CategoryClassLine itemsQuantity receivedRecorded value (original cost)
Radio and television communication equipment, except airborneCommunications and electronics · FSC 5820Mundane29 items (Each)$118,773

Every recorded transfer

Equipment class

Sort

Filtering only hides rows; every recorded transfer stays in the table below it.

Scroll sideways for more columns →

1033 program transfers recorded for Hillsdale Police Department, as recorded by the Defense Logistics Agency
ItemCategoryQtyRecorded valueOriginal DoD cost
RECEIVER-TRANSMITTER,RADIONSN 5820-01-526-5959Shipped 2015-01-15 · DEMIL DRadio and television communication equipment, except airborne Mundane8 Each$105,576
RECEIVER-TRANSMITTER,RADIONSN 5820-01-526-5959Shipped 2015-01-15 · DEMIL DRadio and television communication equipment, except airborne Mundane1 Each$13,197

2 of 2 recorded transfers shown. Quantities are per unit of issue and are never summed across units. DEMIL code A: non-controlled property, may be disposed of after one year (so a listed item is not necessarily still held). Codes such as C, D, F, and Q: controlled property with federal return or demilitarization requirements.

AnalysisMilitarization Index: computed by this site, not an official statistic.

Hillsdale Police Department received $0 of tactical 1033 equipment value per sworn officer (original cost, divided by its latest FBI-reported staffing): the 35th percentile among municipal police agencies of similar size (15-29 officers, n=167).

Peer group: Municipal police, 15-29 officers (n=167)

Tactical 1033 value per sworn officer: Municipal police, 15-29 officers
RangeAgencies
0–5000147
5000–1000013
10000–150004
15000–200001
20000–250000
25000–300001

Hillsdale Police Department: 0 dollars of tactical 1033 acquisition value per sworn officer: 35th percentile among Municipal police, 15-29 officers (n=167).

A higher index is not automatically worse. It divides cumulative transfers over the covered window by current staffing, so it measures how intensively an agency has participated in the program, not what it holds today. See the methodology.

Statewide totals, per-county rollups, and the top categories across all of New Jersey are on the 1033 program overview.

Internal affairs investigations by year

counts

Internal affairs investigations reported by Hillsdale Police Department, by year
Categorycounts
20211
20223
20235
20244

Incidents

3 in 2024

Internal affairs incidents reported by Hillsdale Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20211
20222
20235
20243
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 · 4 reported years

Share of internal affairs investigations sustained by Hillsdale Police Department, by year
Yearshare of total
20210
202266.667
202340
202450

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

Complaint mix, 2024

Most serious allegation per investigation, as categorized by the reporting agency. Officer-level rows list 4 officers involved.

Most serious allegation

Most serious allegations reported by Hillsdale Police Department, 2024
Assault2
Other Departmental Rule Violation1
Other Criminal Violation1
AdministrativeConduct / dutyRights / integrityViolence / criminal

Statewide category pages: Assault · Other Departmental Rule Violation · Other Criminal Violation

Internal disposition

Internal dispositions reported by Hillsdale Police Department, 2024
Exonerated2
Sustained2

Allegations by year, 2021 to 2024

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

Demeanor

5 of 13

Demeanor allegations reported by Hillsdale Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20210
20221
20234
20240

Assault

2 of 13

Assault allegations reported by Hillsdale Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20210
20220
20230
20242

Other Departmental Rule Violation

2 of 13

Other Departmental Rule Violation allegations reported by Hillsdale Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20211
20220
20230
20241

Vehicular Pursuit Policy Violation

2 of 13

Vehicular Pursuit Policy Violation allegations reported by Hillsdale Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20210
20222
20230
20240

Other (2 categories)

2 of 13

Other (2 categories) allegations reported by Hillsdale Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20210
20220
20231
20241

Report card

Grade C: Middle fifth of peers

On reported IA volume and discipline severity; see methodology

Combined standing
56th 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 Hillsdale 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

Hillsdale Police Department: 123.077 severity-weighted discipline per 100 IA-investigated officers: 92nd 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%

5th percentileof 171 peers

100.0 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%

92nd percentileof 171 peers

123.1 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%

75th percentileof 171 peers

2.38 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.[19] How each metric is defined.
This agency's rank on each metric, among agencies of the same type
MetricValueRank
Major discipline2020-20252127th of 282 municipal police
Militarization Indexas of 2026-06-30$0152nd of 163 municipal police
Sworn per 1,000 residentslatest reported census year2.53196th of 460 municipal police
Police pay vs school paypension snapshot 2026-03-310.99x371st of 415 municipal police
OPRA requests recordedOPRAmachine, 2017 to present14303rd of 458 municipal police

Major discipline records

1 major discipline records in 2025, up from 0 in 2020.
Yearmajor discipline records
20200
20210
20220
20230
20241
20251

1 major discipline records in 2025, up from 0 in 2020.

Major discipline records reported by Hillsdale Police Department, 2020-2025
YearOfficerRankSanction as reportedSrc
2025Sean SmithChiefSeparated while IA pending[20]
2024Alex KaplanSgt.Suspended 4 days[21]

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.[4] 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 Hillsdale Borough, the municipal records custodian, which also fields requests about permits, property, and code enforcement. Only the 14 requests whose subject line indicates it concerns the police department are counted below. The other 66 filed to Hillsdale Borough are about something else and are not shown.

Police-related requests

14[4]

Identified by subject line, of 80 filed to Hillsdale Borough

Most recent request

December 2025[4]

First recorded May 2020

Awaiting a response

10[4]

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 Hillsdale Borough (requests)
Awaiting agency response10
Requester reported success2
Withdrawn by requester1
Requester reported partial success1

Recent requests

The 12 most recent police-related requests to Hillsdale 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. 2025-04-25Awaiting agency response
  5. 2025-03-15Withdrawn by requester
  6. 2025-01-15Requester reported success
  7. 2023-08-31Awaiting agency response
  8. 2023-08-31Awaiting agency response
  9. 2021-04-20Requester reported success
  10. 2020-05-28Awaiting agency response
  11. 2020-05-28Awaiting agency response
  12. 2020-05-27Requester reported partial 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 Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale 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

How many internal affairs investigations did Hillsdale Police Department report in 2024?

Hillsdale Police Department reported 4 internal affairs investigations in 2024, according to New Jersey Attorney General data. 4 distinct officers were named in that year's IA investigations.

How many major discipline records does Hillsdale Police Department have?

Hillsdale Police Department has 2 major discipline records in the Attorney General's 2020-2025 releases, of which 0 were terminations. These are final, adjudicated actions, not allegations.

How many officers does Hillsdale Police Department have?

Hillsdale Police Department reported 26 full-time sworn officers to the FBI's Law Enforcement Employees census for 2025, 15.4% of them female. That is 2.53 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 military surplus equipment has Hillsdale Police Department received through the 1033 program?

Hillsdale Police Department received 2 recorded line items of surplus military equipment through the Defense Department's 1033 program in 2015, with a total recorded value of $118,773 (original DoD acquisition cost, not current or market value). The largest category by recorded value was: Radio and television communication equipment, except airborne. Transfers are as recorded by the Defense Logistics Agency as of 2026-06-30; equipment acquired through the program is not necessarily still held.

What is the total recorded value of the 1033 equipment Hillsdale Police Department received?

The surplus equipment recorded for Hillsdale Police Department under the 1033 program totals $118,773 in original DoD acquisition cost, of which $0 is in categories this site classes as tactical (0 of 2 line items). These are original-cost figures at the time of transfer, not current or market value.

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

The median pensionable salary for the 22 active Hillsdale Police Department officers in the NJ Treasury pension file is $91,052. The median for the 150 TPAF-enrolled staff at HILLSDALE BOROUGH BD OF ED is $87,806, a ratio of 1.04x. Against the Bergen County school-staff median the ratio is 0.99x. 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 555. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
  2. [2]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/ ↩
  3. [3]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. ↩
  4. [4]Records-request activity for Hillsdale 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. ↩
  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 8156. 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 8156. 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 8156. 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 8156. 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 48. 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 1065. 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 1576. 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 555. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
  14. [14]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 Hillsdale PD row for 2024; row 1 is the header. ↩
  15. [15]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 Hillsdale PD row for 2021. ↩
  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 Hillsdale PD row for 2022. ↩
  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 Hillsdale PD row for 2023. ↩
  18. [18]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 Hillsdale PD row for 2024. ↩
  19. [19]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. ↩
  20. [20]New Jersey Major Discipline Data, 2020-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Major Discipline Data", row 77. Snapshot retrieved 2026-07-03. ↩
  21. [21]New Jersey Major Discipline Data, 2020-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Major Discipline Data", row 879. Snapshot retrieved 2026-07-03. ↩