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Department profile · Ocean County

Ocean Township Police Department

Reported as: Ocean Twp 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

Ocean Township Police Department encrypts its radio communications (P25 AES-256, part of its operations (All Operations except interop and dispatch TG's)), according to PoliceRadioEncryption.com, as of 2026-03-06 (verified).

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

Ocean Township Police Department in Ocean County last reported internal affairs data for 2024, listing 11 officers named in internal affairs cases and 14 investigations. A per-officer investigation rate was not reported, and no county or municipal median comparison is available. Five of the 14 investigations detailed for 2024 reported sustained complaints. Neglect of Duty led the allegation categories with 6 cases, followed by Other Departmental Rule Violation at 4 and Improper Arrest at 2.

No major discipline records appear in the 2020-2025 releases, and the absence of records is not a finding. The department received an A on the report card, at the 16th percentile among 171 peers in the 15-29 officers band, 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, 2024

11[1]

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

IA investigations, 2024

14[1]

Incidents, 2024

12[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

24[6]

58 years reported

24 sworn officers in 2025, up from 4 in 1968 (+500%).
Yearsworn officers
19684
19695
19705
19715
19727
19737
19748
19758
19768
19778
197811
197912
198010
19819
19829
19839
19849
198510
19869
19877
198813
198912
199012
199112
199212
199312
199412
199512
199615
199715
199817
199915
200015
200116
200216
200317
200416
200518
200619
200718
200817
200920
201018
201119
201221
201322
201420
201521
201618
201718
201821
201923
202021
202124
202222
202322
202424
202524

Civilian employees, 2025

10[7]

0.42 per sworn officer

Female sworn officers, 2025

1[8]

4.2% of sworn officers

Officers per 1,000 residents, 2025

2.56[9]

Municipal departments only

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

How Ocean Township 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
24–2623
26–2817
28–3019

Ocean Township Police Department: 24 sworn officers: 68th 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 Ocean Township Police Department officers in the file.

Median officer salary

$131,658[2]

22 active officers

Median school staff

$80,170

Ocean County, all TPAF members

Against the county

1.64x

Median officer to Ocean County school-staff median

AnalysisEvery ratio here is computed by this site from as-reported pensionable salaries. 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 Ocean 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 Ocean Township Police Department, by year
Categorycounts
202110
20222
20238
202414

Incidents

12 in 2024

Internal affairs incidents reported by Ocean Township Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
202110
20222
20238
202412
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 Ocean Township Police Department, by year
Yearshare of total
20210
20220
202337.5
202435.714

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 14 officers involved.

Most serious allegation

Most serious allegations reported by Ocean Township Police Department, 2024
Neglect of Duty6
Other Departmental Rule Violation4
Improper Arrest2
Demeanor1
Preventable MV Accident1
AdministrativeConduct / dutyRights / integrityViolence / criminal

Statewide category pages: Neglect of Duty · Other Departmental Rule Violation · Improper Arrest · Demeanor · Preventable MV Accident

Internal disposition

Internal dispositions reported by Ocean Township Police Department, 2024
Sustained6
Unfounded5
Exonerated2
Not Sustained1

Allegations by year, 2021 to 2024

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

Other Departmental Rule Violation

13 of 34

Other Departmental Rule Violation allegations reported by Ocean Township Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20217
20222
20230
20244

Neglect of Duty

6 of 34

Neglect of Duty allegations reported by Ocean Township Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20210
20220
20230
20246

not provided

4 of 34

not provided allegations reported by Ocean Township Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20210
20220
20234
20240

Preventable MV Accident

4 of 34

Preventable MV Accident allegations reported by Ocean Township Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20210
20220
20233
20241

Other (3 categories)

7 of 34

Other (3 categories) allegations reported by Ocean Township Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20213
20220
20231
20243

Report card

Grade A: Lowest fifth of peers

On reported IA volume and discipline severity; see methodology

Combined standing
16th 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 Ocean Township 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

Ocean Township 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%

42nd percentileof 171 peers

115.2 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%

17th percentileof 171 peers

1.63 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
Sworn per 1,000 residentslatest reported census year2.56191st of 460 municipal police
Police pay vs school paypension snapshot 2026-03-311.64x70th of 415 municipal police
OPRA requests recordedOPRAmachine, 2017 to present23143rd 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.

Fatal encounters recorded involving this agency

From the independent Fatal Encounters dataset, 2000-2021

In brief (written by this site from the records below)

One record in the Fatal Encounters dataset names Ocean Township Police Department, in 2011. The dataset records the force on it, in its own as-recorded terms, as Gunshot. The dataset comes from Fatal Encounters, an independent crowdsourced journalism project that logged deaths occurring during police encounters of any kind, including vehicle pursuits, overdoses, and medical emergencies. A record means a death occurred during an encounter with the agency named in the as-reported agency field; it is not a finding of fault. Collection ended in December 2021, so the dataset is frozen at that point and later years are simply not covered.

Fatal Encounters is an independent, crowdsourced dataset that documented deaths during police encounters nationwide from 2000 until its collection ended in December 2021.[3] 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. A record appears here because Ocean Township Police Departmentis named in the record's as-reported agency field. A listing is not a misconduct finding, and it is not connected to the Attorney General discipline records above. See the methodology. Each record links to its own page with the full as-reported details.

  • Todd A. Wolford

    March 3, 2011 · Waretown · Highest level of force as recorded: Gunshot

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 Ocean Township (Ocean), the municipal records custodian, which also fields requests about permits, property, and code enforcement. Only the 23 requests whose subject line indicates it concerns the police department are counted below. The other 122 filed to Ocean Township (Ocean) are about something else and are not shown.

Police-related requests

23[4]

Identified by subject line, of 145 filed to Ocean Township (Ocean)

Most recent request

July 2025[4]

First recorded October 2017

Awaiting a response

13[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 Ocean Township (Ocean) (requests)
Awaiting agency response13
Requester reported success5
Requester reported partial success3
Withdrawn by requester1
Response sent by post1

Recent requests

The 12 most recent police-related requests to Ocean Township (Ocean), 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. 2025-07-16Awaiting agency response
  2. 2025-03-26Awaiting agency response
  3. 2024-11-28Awaiting agency response
  4. 2024-11-27Awaiting agency response
  5. 2024-09-19Withdrawn by requester
  6. 2023-10-01Requester reported success
  7. 2023-10-01Awaiting agency response
  8. 2023-08-31Awaiting agency response
  9. 2023-08-31Awaiting agency response
  10. 2023-03-18Response sent by post
  11. 2022-06-23Awaiting agency response
  12. 2021-04-20Awaiting 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 Ocean Township (Ocean) 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 Ocean Township (Ocean) 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 Ocean Township Police Department's internal affairs and discipline record?

Ocean Township Police Department in Ocean County last reported internal affairs data for 2024, listing 11 officers named in internal affairs cases and 14 investigations. A per-officer investigation rate was not reported, and no county or municipal median comparison is available. Five of the 14 investigations detailed for 2024 reported sustained complaints. Neglect of Duty led the allegation categories with 6 cases, followed by Other Departmental Rule Violation at 4 and Improper Arrest at 2. No major discipline records appear in the 2020-2025 releases, and the absence of records is not a finding. The department received an A on the report card, at the 16th percentile among 171 peers in the 15-29 officers band, a medium-confidence grade.

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

Ocean Township Police Department reported 14 internal affairs investigations in 2024, according to New Jersey Attorney General data. 11 distinct officers were named in that year's IA investigations.

How many major discipline records does Ocean Township Police Department have?

No major discipline records appear for Ocean Township 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.

Does Ocean Township Police Department encrypt its radio communications?

According to PoliceRadioEncryption.com, Ocean Township Police Department encrypts part 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 Ocean Township Police Department have?

Ocean Township Police Department reported 24 full-time sworn officers to the FBI's Law Enforcement Employees census for 2025, 4.2% of them female. That is 2.56 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.

How many deaths during police encounters are recorded for Ocean Township Police Department?

The independent Fatal Encounters dataset contains 1 record naming Ocean Township Police Department, from 2011 through 2011. Fatal Encounters is a crowdsourced journalism project, not a government source, and it documented deaths that occurred during police encounters of any kind. Each record links to a page showing it exactly as the project recorded it.

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

The median pensionable salary for the 22 active Ocean Township Police Department officers in the NJ Treasury pension file is $131,658. Against the Ocean County school-staff median the ratio is 1.64x. 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 896. 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]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/ ↩
  4. [4]Records-request activity for Ocean Township (Ocean). 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 8524. 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 8524. 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 8524. 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 8524. 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 395. 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 1415. 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 1921. 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 896. 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 Ocean Twp 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 Ocean Twp 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 Ocean Twp 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 Ocean Twp 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 Ocean Twp 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. ↩