Fatal Encounters · Independent third-party dataset
Deaths during police encounters in New Jersey, 2000 to 2021
Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org) is an independent, crowdsourced journalism project that documented deaths occurring during police encounters of any kind across the United States. This page lists its 549 New Jersey records, newest first, each linking to a page that shows the record exactly as the project recorded it.
This is not a list of people killed by police, and it is not a misconduct record. The dataset includes deaths of every kind that happened during or around an encounter: shootings, vehicle pursuits and crashes, suicides that occurred in police presence, medical emergencies, drownings, and overdoses. A record says a death occurred during an encounter; it does not say an officer or agency was at fault.
Coverage
2000-2021
Years with records
Collection ended
Dec 2021
The dataset is frozen
Years listed
22
Grouped below, newest first
Where these deaths happened
545 records · 2000 to 2021
545 of 549 records plotted. 4 carry coordinates the source placed outside New Jersey and are not shown; they remain in the record list below.
| County | Records |
|---|---|
| Atlantic | 22 |
| Bergen | 32 |
| Burlington | 19 |
| Camden | 52 |
| Cape May | 10 |
| Cumberland | 26 |
| Essex | 118 |
| Gloucester | 14 |
| Hudson | 34 |
| Hunterdon | 5 |
| Mercer | 32 |
| Middlesex | 26 |
| Monmouth | 17 |
| Morris | 14 |
| Ocean | 28 |
| Passaic | 36 |
| Salem | 6 |
| Somerset | 11 |
| Sussex | 9 |
| Union | 24 |
| Warren | 12 |
Individual records, with names, dates, cities, and the agencies the source names, are in the record list on this page.
Deaths during police encounters, per 1,000 residents
2000 to 2021 · per 1,000 residents
Counties are grouped by rank into 6 equal-sized groups, compared against the other 20 shown here only. Shading is rate per 1,000 residents, not a grade or a judgment. Boundary values are printed above the ramp.
County outlines are generalized for display and are not legal boundaries. Population is from the 2020 Census. Internal affairs figures are more recent, so a per-resident rate mixes vintages.
| County | rate per 1,000 residents |
|---|---|
| Atlantic | 0.080 |
| Bergen | 0.033 |
| Burlington | 0.041 |
| Camden | 0.099 |
| Cape May | 0.105 |
| Cumberland | 0.169 |
| Essex | 0.137 |
| Gloucester | 0.046 |
| Hudson | 0.047 |
| Hunterdon | 0.039 |
| Mercer | 0.083 |
| Middlesex | 0.030 |
| Monmouth | 0.026 |
| Morris | 0.027 |
| Ocean | 0.044 |
| Passaic | 0.069 |
| Salem | 0.093 |
| Somerset | 0.032 |
| Sussex | 0.062 |
| Union | 0.042 |
| Warren | 0.109 |
Counties ranked
- 1Cumberland0.169 (group 6 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 2Essex0.137 (group 6 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 3Warren0.109 (group 6 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 4Cape May0.105 (group 6 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 5Camden0.099 (group 5 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 6Salem0.093 (group 5 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 7Mercer0.083 (group 5 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 8Atlantic0.080 (group 4 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 9Passaic0.069 (group 4 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 10Sussex0.062 (group 4 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 11Hudson0.047 (group 3 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 12Gloucester0.046 (group 3 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 13Ocean0.044 (group 3 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 14Union0.042 (group 3 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 15Burlington0.041 (group 2 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 16Hunterdon0.039 (group 2 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 17Bergen0.033 (group 2 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 18Somerset0.032 (group 1 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 19Middlesex0.030 (group 1 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 20Morris0.027 (group 1 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 21Monmouth0.026 (group 1 of 6, lowest to highest)
Per 1,000 residents, 2000 to 2021.
Not on this map: the State Police, the Department of Corrections, Transit Police, and other state-level agencies. They operate across county lines and the Attorney General reports them outside the county system, so their activity appears in no county here. They are in the rankings.
County
The county the project recorded for each death. These counts locate records; they are not a comparison between counties, and they are not a measure of any department.
Highest level of force
The dataset's own field, reproduced exactly as recorded. A label describes what was involved in the death, not who was at fault. Vehicle, for instance, covers pursuits and crashes.
549 of 549 records shown.
2021 (25 records)
2020 (19 records)
2019 (21 records)
2018 (29 records)
2017 (36 records)
2016 (21 records)
2015 (31 records)
2014 (19 records)
2013 (23 records)
2012 (23 records)
2011 (32 records)
2010 (29 records)
2009 (19 records)
2008 (23 records)
2007 (22 records)
2006 (22 records)
2005 (30 records)
2004 (31 records)
2003 (23 records)
2002 (22 records)
2001 (24 records)
2000 (25 records)
Questions and answers
What is the Fatal Encounters dataset?
Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org) is an independent, crowdsourced journalism project that documented deaths occurring during police encounters of any kind across the United States. It is not a government source, and it is separate from the New Jersey Attorney General discipline data on the rest of this site. The project stopped collecting in December 2021.
What years does Fatal Encounters cover for New Jersey?
The New Jersey records run from 2000 through 2021. The project suspended collection in December 2021, so the absence of records after 2021 means the dataset ended, not that these deaths ended.
Does a record here mean police caused the death?
No. Fatal Encounters documented deaths that occurred during police encounters of any kind, not deaths caused by police. The New Jersey records include vehicle pursuits and crashes (131 of the 549 records list "Vehicle" as the highest level of force), suicides that occurred in police presence, medical emergencies, drownings, and other circumstances. A record is not a finding of fault, misconduct, or wrongdoing by any officer or agency.
How many New Jersey records are in the dataset?
There are 549 New Jersey records, covering 2000 through 2021. Each links to its own page showing the details exactly as Fatal Encounters recorded them, with a citation to the exact source row.
Sources
- [1]Fatal Encounters, New Jersey subset (all 549 records). Fatal Encounters (fatalencounters.org). Derived from the public Fatal Encounters national dataset (coverage 2000-2021; collection ended December 2021), https://fatalencounters.org/. Retrieved July 10, 2026. ↩
- [2]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.
- [3]County population: 2020 Decennial Census, as republished by NJOGIS, carried on NJ_Counties_3857 (FeatureServer layer 0). New Jersey Office of Information Technology, Office of GIS (NJOGIS), https://services2.arcgis.com/XVOqAjTOJ5P6ngMu/arcgis/rest/services/NJ_Counties_3857/FeatureServer/0. Retrieved 2026-07-27.