Department profile · Somerset County

Somerset County Sheriff's Department

Reported as: Somerset Co Sheriffs DeptCounty sheriff

Jurisdiction context

Not a civil service jurisdiction

Somerset County has no participating local jurisdictions on the NJCSC Appendix A roster, so major discipline here follows the statutes governing this agency type rather than the Title 4A framework, 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

The Somerset County Sheriff's Department reported 19 internal affairs investigations in 2025, up from 14 in 2024, with 16 officers named in those cases. Its rate of 118.8 per 100 officers matched the Somerset County median of 118.8 and ran above the 115.2 median for sheriff agencies, a difference that can reflect more misconduct or a fuller record of complaints. Seven of the 19 investigations detailed for 2025 reported sustained complaints. Other Departmental Rule Violation accounted for 15 of the cases, with False Documentation/Falsifying A Report (Criminal) and BWC/MVR Violation each cited once.

Three major discipline records appear in the 2020-2025 releases, from 2020, 2023 and 2024, none of them terminations. Somerset Co Sheriffs Dept received a B on the report card, at the 26th percentile among 21 peers in the group of all sheriff agencies, 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

16^{^[1]}

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

IA investigations, 2025

19^{^[1]}

Incidents, 2025

12^{^[1]}

Major discipline records

All years, 2020-2025

Staffing

Staffing data not available. The FBI's national staffing census (LEE) does not separately track county corrections facilities, sheriff's offices, or other county agencies in New Jersey -- only a single statewide Department of Corrections figure exists in that data. See the methodology for what FBI staffing data does and does not cover.

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 Somerset County Sheriff's Department, by year
Category	counts
2021	2
2022	13
2023	5
2024	14
2025	19

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Incidents

12 in 2025

Internal affairs incidents reported by Somerset County Sheriff's Department, by year
Year	counts
2021	2
2022	9
2023	5
2024	9
2025	12

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Officers on IA rows

19 in 2025

Officers listed on the officer-level internal affairs rows for Somerset County Sheriff's Department, by year
Year	counts
2021	not reported
2022	not reported
2023	not reported
2024	14
2025	19

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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 Somerset County Sheriff's Department, by year
Year	share of total
2021	0
2022	7.692
2023	20
2024	21.429
2025	36.842

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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 19 officers involved.

Most serious allegation

Most serious allegations reported by Somerset County Sheriff's Department, 2025
Other Departmental Rule Violation	15
not provided	1
False Documentation/Falsifying A Report (Criminal)	1
BWC/MVR Violation	1
Conduct Unbecoming/Discredit To The Agency	1

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AdministrativeConduct / dutyRights / integrityViolence / criminal

Statewide category pages: Other Departmental Rule Violation · False Documentation/Falsifying A Report (Criminal) · BWC/MVR Violation · Conduct Unbecoming/Discredit To The Agency

Internal disposition

Internal dispositions reported by Somerset County Sheriff's Department, 2025
Sustained	10
Administratively Closed	4
Exonerated	3
not provided	2

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Allegations by year, 2021 to 2025

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

Other Departmental Rule Violation

33 of 53

Other Departmental Rule Violation allegations reported by Somerset County Sheriff's Department, by year
Year	counts
2021	2
2022	4
2023	4
2024	8
2025	15

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Demeanor

9 of 53

Demeanor allegations reported by Somerset County Sheriff's Department, by year
Year	counts
2021	0
2022	5
2023	0
2024	4
2025	0

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Theft

3 of 53

Theft allegations reported by Somerset County Sheriff's Department, by year
Year	counts
2021	0
2022	3
2023	0
2024	0
2025	0

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BWC/MVR Violation

2 of 53

BWC/MVR Violation allegations reported by Somerset County Sheriff's Department, by year
Year	counts
2021	0
2022	0
2023	0
2024	1
2025	1

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Other (5 categories)

6 of 53

Other (5 categories) allegations reported by Somerset County Sheriff's Department, by year
Year	counts
2021	0
2022	1
2023	1
2024	1
2025	3

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Against peers, 2025

How this grade was built →

Internal affairs investigations per 100 IA-investigated officers, 2025 (investigations per 100 IA-investigated officers)
Somerset County Sheriff's Department	118.8
County median, county sheriff (1)	118.8
NJ median, county sheriff (20)	115.2

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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.

Report card

Grade B: Second-lowest fifth

On reported IA volume and discipline severity; see methodology

Combined standing: 26th percentile of 21 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 Somerset County Sheriff's Department's real peer group, not an assumed bell curve. If the group is skewed, it is shown skewed.

Peer group: County sheriff, all sheriff agencies (n=21)

Discipline severity: County sheriff, all sheriff agencies
Range	Agencies
0–50	6
50–100	8
100–150	6
150–200	0
200–250	1

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Somerset County Sheriff's Department: 62.5 severity-weighted discipline per 100 IA-investigated officers: 50th percentile among County sheriff, all sheriff agencies (n=21).

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%

26th percentileof 21 peers

107.1 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%

50th percentileof 21 peers

62.5 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%

26th percentileof 21 peers

1.54 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.^[15] How each metric is defined.

This agency's rank on each metric, among agencies of the same type
Metric	Value	Rank
IA per 100 investigated officers2025	118.8	9th of 20 county sheriff
IA investigations2025	19	13th of 20 county sheriff
IA incidents2025	12	14th of 20 county sheriff
Major discipline2020-2025	3	14th of 17 county sheriff

Major discipline records

0 major discipline records in 2025, down from 1 in 2020 (-100%).
Year	major discipline records
2020	1
2021	0
2022	0
2023	1
2024	1
2025	0

0 major discipline records in 2025, down from 1 in 2020 (-100%).

Major discipline records reported by Somerset County Sheriff's Department, 2020-2025
Year	Officer	Rank	Sanction as reported	Src
2024	Alex Rossman	Sheriff Officer	Suspended 30 daysSeparated while IA pending	^[16]
2023	Eric Rogus	Officer	Suspended 20 days	^[17]
2020	Raymond Thompson	Officer	Suspended 25 days	^[18]

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

Public records requests

No records-request history is shown for this department. OPRAmachine, an independent site that files and publishes Open Public Records Act requests, has no public body that confidently matches this department, so this site does not assert one. That does not mean nobody has requested records from it. (Checked against a snapshot of OPRAmachine taken 12 July 2026.) See the methodology for how the match is made.

Questions and answers

What is a summary of Somerset County Sheriff's Department's internal affairs and discipline record?

The Somerset County Sheriff's Department reported 19 internal affairs investigations in 2025, up from 14 in 2024, with 16 officers named in those cases. Its rate of 118.8 per 100 officers matched the Somerset County median of 118.8 and ran above the 115.2 median for sheriff agencies, a difference that can reflect more misconduct or a fuller record of complaints. Seven of the 19 investigations detailed for 2025 reported sustained complaints. Other Departmental Rule Violation accounted for 15 of the cases, with False Documentation/Falsifying A Report (Criminal) and BWC/MVR Violation each cited once. Three major discipline records appear in the 2020-2025 releases, from 2020, 2023 and 2024, none of them terminations. Somerset Co Sheriffs Dept received a B on the report card, at the 26th percentile among 21 peers in the group of all sheriff agencies, a medium-confidence grade.

How many internal affairs investigations did Somerset County Sheriff's Department report in 2025?

Somerset County Sheriff's Department reported 19 internal affairs investigations in 2025, according to New Jersey Attorney General data. 16 distinct officers were named in that year's IA investigations.

How many major discipline records does Somerset County Sheriff's Department have?

Somerset County Sheriff's Department has 3 major discipline records in the Attorney General's 2020-2025 releases, of which 0 were terminations. These are final, adjudicated actions, not allegations.

Where to go next

Somerset County
Every reporting agency in the same county, with the same figures side by side.
Rankings
Highest standing: 9th of 20 county sheriff, ia per 100 investigated officers
All report cards
This agency: grade B against peers of its type and size
Statewide totals
The same measures summed across all reporting agencies in New Jersey.
Staffing census
FBI-reported sworn and civilian headcounts, and how they are matched.
Download the data
The machine-readable files behind every figure on this page.

Sources

[1]New Jersey Internal Affairs Agency Totals, 2021-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 2489. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
[2]New Jersey Internal Affairs Officers, 2024-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Officer counts summed across every Somerset Co Sheriffs Dept row. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
[3]New Jersey county boundaries. New Jersey Office of Information Technology, Office of GIS (NJOGIS). NJ_Counties_3857 (FeatureServer layer 0), https://services2.arcgis.com/XVOqAjTOJ5P6ngMu/arcgis/rest/services/NJ_Counties_3857/FeatureServer/0. 2020 boundary delineation. Retrieved 2026-07-27. Boundaries are generalized for display. This data set is not a survey document and must not be used as such. The polygons do not represent legal boundaries.
[4]New Jersey Internal Affairs Agency Totals, 2021-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 449. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
[5]New Jersey Internal Affairs Agency Totals, 2021-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 1470. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
[6]New Jersey Internal Affairs Agency Totals, 2021-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 1978. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
[7]New Jersey Internal Affairs Agency Totals, 2021-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 954. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
[8]New Jersey Internal Affairs Agency Totals, 2021-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 2489. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
[9]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 Somerset Co Sheriffs Dept row for 2025; row 1 is the header. ↩
[10]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 Somerset Co Sheriffs Dept row for 2021. ↩
[11]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 Somerset Co Sheriffs Dept row for 2022. ↩
[12]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 Somerset Co Sheriffs Dept row for 2023. ↩
[13]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 Somerset Co Sheriffs Dept row for 2024. ↩
[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 Somerset Co Sheriffs Dept row for 2025. ↩
[15]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. ↩
[16]New Jersey Major Discipline Data, 2020-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Major Discipline Data", row 1278. Snapshot retrieved 2026-07-03. ↩
[17]New Jersey Major Discipline Data, 2020-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Major Discipline Data", row 1875. Snapshot retrieved 2026-07-03. ↩
[18]New Jersey Major Discipline Data, 2020-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Major Discipline Data", row 2928. Snapshot retrieved 2026-07-03. ↩