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Department profile · Passaic County

Wayne Police Department

Reported as: Wayne 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

Wayne Police Department encrypts its radio communications (P25 DES-OFB, all operations), according to PoliceRadioEncryption.com, as of 2026-04-21 (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

Wayne Police Department logged 33 internal affairs investigations in 2025, with 28 officers named in those cases. At 117.9 per 100 officers, its rate fell below the Passaic County median of 125 and the 125.9 statewide municipal median. Nine of the 33 investigations detailed for 2025 reported sustained complaints. Other Departmental Rule Violation was the leading allegation category, with Demeanor and Neglect of Duty behind it.

One major discipline record appears across the 2020-2025 releases, from 2025, and it is a termination. Wayne PD received an A on the report card, at the 10th percentile among 93 peers in the 60+ officers group, a high-confidence grade.

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

Officers named in IA cases, 2025

28[1]

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

IA investigations, 2025

33[1]

Incidents, 2025

29[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

125[7]

59 years reported

125 sworn officers in 2025, up from 61 in 1967 (+105%).
Yearsworn officers
196761
196867
196973
197083
197183
197297
1973104
1974105
1975103
1976107
1977107
1978107
1979106
1980106
1981107
198299
1983100
1984100
1985105
1986105
1987106
1988108
1989107
1990100
199196
1992103
1993110
1994107
1995110
1996110
1997108
1998110
1999110
2000111
2001114
2002114
2003118
2004118
2005118
2006116
2007119
2008117
2009120
2010114
2011117
2012117
2013117
2014121
2015114
2016114
2017117
2018120
2019117
2020118
2021121
2022131
2023124
2024124
2025125

Civilian employees, 2025

28[8]

0.22 per sworn officer

Female sworn officers, 2025

12[9]

9.6% of sworn officers

Officers per 1,000 residents, 2025

2.32[10]

Municipal departments only

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

How Wayne 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, 60+ officers (n=92)

Sworn officers: Municipal police, 60+ officers
RangeAgencies
0–20084
200–4005
400–6001
600–8001
800–10000
1000–12001

Wayne Police Department: 125 sworn officers: 67th percentile among Municipal police, 60+ officers (n=92).

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 126 active Wayne Police Department officers in the file.

Median officer salary

$107,769[2]

126 active officers

Median local school staff

$94,274

WAYNE BOARD OF EDUCATION, 827 TPAF members

Against the local district

1.14x

Median officer to median local school staff

Against the county

1.20x

Median officer to Passaic 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 "WAYNE BOARD OF EDUCATION", 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 Passaic 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 Wayne Police Department, by year
Categorycounts
202143
202242
202342
202480
202533

Incidents

29 in 2025

Internal affairs incidents reported by Wayne Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
202132
202237
202328
202451
202529

Officers on IA rows

33 in 2025

Officers listed on the officer-level internal affairs rows for Wayne Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
2021not reported
2022not reported
2023not reported
202480
202533
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 Wayne Police Department, by year
Yearshare of total
20210
202214.286
20237.143
20246.25
202527.273

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 33 officers involved.

Most serious allegation

Most serious allegations reported by Wayne Police Department, 2025
Other Departmental Rule Violation16
Demeanor4
Neglect of Duty3
Sexual Assault/Criminal Sexual Violation2
Differential Treatment2
False Documentation/Falsifying A Report (Non-Criminal)2
Excessive Force1
Improper Arrest1
AdministrativeConduct / dutyRights / integrityViolence / criminal

Statewide category pages: Other Departmental Rule Violation · Demeanor · Neglect of Duty · Sexual Assault/Criminal Sexual Violation · Differential Treatment · False Documentation/Falsifying A Report (Non-Criminal) · Excessive Force · Improper Arrest

Internal disposition

Internal dispositions reported by Wayne Police Department, 2025
Exonerated9
Sustained9
Unfounded6
not provided5
Not Sustained3
Administratively Closed1

Allegations by year, 2021 to 2025

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

Demeanor

69 of 240

Demeanor allegations reported by Wayne Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
202116
20227
202319
202423
20254

Other Departmental Rule Violation

66 of 240

Other Departmental Rule Violation allegations reported by Wayne Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20215
202212
20235
202428
202516

Differential Treatment

36 of 240

Differential Treatment allegations reported by Wayne Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20216
202211
20236
202411
20252

Other Criminal Violation

16 of 240

Other Criminal Violation allegations reported by Wayne Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
202113
20221
20231
20241
20250

Other (15 categories)

53 of 240

Other (15 categories) allegations reported by Wayne Police Department, by year
Yearcounts
20213
202211
202311
202417
202511

Against peers, 2025

How this grade was built →
Internal affairs investigations per 100 IA-investigated officers, 2025 (investigations per 100 IA-investigated officers)
Wayne Police Department117.9
County median, municipal police (17)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.

33 investigations reported for 2025[1] ÷ 125 sworn officers the department reported to the FBI for 2025[22] = 26.4 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 A: Lowest fifth of peers

On reported IA volume and discipline severity; see methodology

Combined standing
10th percentile of 93 peers
Confidence
High confidence

Where this agency falls among its peers

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

Peer group: Municipal police, 60+ officers (n=93)

Discipline severity: Municipal police, 60+ officers
RangeAgencies
0–5066
50–10025
100–1501
150–2001

Wayne Police Department: 10.204 severity-weighted discipline per 100 IA-investigated officers: 12th percentile among Municipal police, 60+ officers (n=93).

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%

23rd percentileof 93 peers

121.7 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%

12th percentileof 93 peers

10.2 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%

73rd percentileof 93 peers

2.19 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.[23] How each metric is defined.
This agency's rank on each metric, among agencies of the same type
MetricValueRank
IA per 100 investigated officers2025117.9280th of 445 municipal police
IA investigations20253369th of 445 municipal police
IA incidents20252958th of 445 municipal police
Major discipline2020-20251184th of 282 municipal police
Terminations2020-2025130th of 111 municipal police
Sworn per 1,000 residentslatest reported census year2.32240th of 460 municipal police
Police pay vs school paypension snapshot 2026-03-311.20x305th of 415 municipal police
OPRA requests recordedOPRAmachine, 2017 to present4838th 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
20240
20251

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

Major discipline records reported by Wayne Police Department, 2020-2025
YearOfficerRankSanction as reportedSrc
2025Eric LougheedP.O.Terminated[24]

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

Fatal encounters recorded involving this agency

From the independent Fatal Encounters dataset, 2000-2021

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

Two records in the Fatal Encounters dataset name Wayne Police Department, one from 2005 and one from 2020. The as-recorded level of force is listed as Gunshot in both. Fatal Encounters was an independent, crowdsourced journalism project that logged deaths occurring during police encounters of any kind, including vehicle pursuits, deaths by suicide in police presence, and medical emergencies. A record is not a finding of fault, and it does not say police caused the death. Collection ended in December 2021, so the dataset is frozen at that point.

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 Wayne 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.

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 Wayne Township, the municipal records custodian, which also fields requests about permits, property, and code enforcement. Only the 48 requests whose subject line indicates it concerns the police department are counted below. The other 152 filed to Wayne Township are about something else and are not shown.

Police-related requests

48[4]

Identified by subject line, of 200 filed to Wayne Township

Most recent request

May 2026[4]

First recorded June 2018

Awaiting a response

30[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 Wayne Township (requests)
Awaiting agency response30
Requester reported success8
Requester reported partial success3
Agency said records not held3
Request refused2
Withdrawn by requester1
Under internal review1

Recent requests

The 12 most recent police-related requests to Wayne Township, 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. 2026-05-18Awaiting agency response
  2. 2026-02-16Requester reported success
  3. 2025-11-30Awaiting agency response
  4. 2025-09-15Awaiting agency response
  5. 2025-08-05Withdrawn by requester
  6. 2025-05-30Awaiting agency response
  7. 2025-04-28Awaiting agency response
  8. 2025-04-28Awaiting agency response
  9. 2025-03-17Awaiting agency response
  10. 2025-01-23Awaiting agency response
  11. 2024-12-11Awaiting agency response
  12. 2024-11-28Awaiting 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 Wayne Township 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 Wayne Township 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 Wayne Police Department's internal affairs and discipline record?

Wayne Police Department logged 33 internal affairs investigations in 2025, with 28 officers named in those cases. At 117.9 per 100 officers, its rate fell below the Passaic County median of 125 and the 125.9 statewide municipal median. Nine of the 33 investigations detailed for 2025 reported sustained complaints. Other Departmental Rule Violation was the leading allegation category, with Demeanor and Neglect of Duty behind it. One major discipline record appears across the 2020-2025 releases, from 2025, and it is a termination. Wayne PD received an A on the report card, at the 10th percentile among 93 peers in the 60+ officers group, a high-confidence grade.

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

Wayne Police Department reported 33 internal affairs investigations in 2025, according to New Jersey Attorney General data. 28 distinct officers were named in that year's IA investigations.

How many major discipline records does Wayne Police Department have?

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

Does Wayne Police Department encrypt its radio communications?

According to PoliceRadioEncryption.com, Wayne Police Department encrypts all of its radio communications (P25 DES-OFB), as recorded on 2026-04-21. This site treats radio encryption as a transparency signal, which is analysis, not a figure from the discipline data.

How many officers does Wayne Police Department have?

Wayne Police Department reported 125 full-time sworn officers to the FBI's Law Enforcement Employees census for 2025, 9.6% of them female. That is 2.32 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 Wayne Police Department?

The independent Fatal Encounters dataset contains 2 records naming Wayne Police Department, from 2005 through 2020. 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 Wayne Police Department pay its officers compared with local school staff?

The median pensionable salary for the 126 active Wayne Police Department officers in the NJ Treasury pension file is $107,769. The median for the 827 TPAF-enrolled staff at WAYNE BOARD OF EDUCATION is $94,274, a ratio of 1.14x. Against the Passaic County school-staff median the ratio is 1.20x. 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 2460. 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 Wayne Township. 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 Internal Affairs Officers, 2024-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Officer counts summed across every Wayne PD row. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
  6. [6]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.
  7. [7]FBI Law Enforcement Employees (LEE), New Jersey subset. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Row 8552. 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 8552. 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 8552. Derived from the public Law Enforcement Employees (LEE) / Police Employee Data dataset (1960-2025), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/. ↩
  10. [10]FBI Law Enforcement Employees (LEE), New Jersey subset. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Row 8552. Derived from the public Law Enforcement Employees (LEE) / Police Employee Data dataset (1960-2025), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/. ↩
  11. [11]New Jersey Internal Affairs Agency Totals, 2021-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 420. 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 1441. 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 1949. 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 924. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
  15. [15]New Jersey Internal Affairs Agency Totals, 2021-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Sheet1", row 2460. Snapshot retrieved 2026-06-09. ↩
  16. [16]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 Wayne PD row for 2025; row 1 is the header. ↩
  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 Wayne PD row for 2021. ↩
  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 Wayne PD row for 2022. ↩
  19. [19]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 Wayne PD row for 2023. ↩
  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 Wayne PD row for 2024. ↩
  21. [21]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 Wayne PD row for 2025. ↩
  22. [22]FBI Law Enforcement Employees (LEE), New Jersey subset. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Row 8552. Derived from the public Law Enforcement Employees (LEE) / Police Employee Data dataset (1960-2025), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/. ↩
  23. [23]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. ↩
  24. [24]New Jersey Major Discipline Data, 2020-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Major Discipline Data", row 514. Snapshot retrieved 2026-07-03. ↩