Guide · Internal affairs
How to file a complaint about a New Jersey police officer
Every police agency in New Jersey works under the same statewide rules for taking complaints, set by the Attorney General. Each rule below is restated in plain language and cited to the section it comes from. This site is independent and does not take complaints.
Who can file
- Any person may file a complaint about a New Jersey police officer, at any time.[1]
- Complaints must be accepted from juveniles, undocumented immigrants, and people who are under arrest or in custody.[2]
- A complaint can be made anonymously, and the agency must accept and investigate it.[3]
- The sample information sheet states that complaints are accepted regardless of the complainant's immigration status.[4]
How to file
- A complaint can be made at any hour on any day, and the person should not be told to come back later.[5]
- If a person cannot come to the agency, an officer should go to them, and agencies are encouraged to take complaints by phone or email.[6]
- A complainant does not have to make a sworn statement to start an internal affairs complaint.[7]
- Agencies must offer the statewide complaint form, in every language the Attorney General publishes, in their offices and on their website if they have one.[8]
- On the statewide complaint form, the section identifying the person making the report is marked optional.[9]
What the agency may not do
- Officers taking a complaint should avoid language that could discourage or intimidate the person, and should not warn them about the consequences of a false report unless asked.[10]
- Lie detector tests may not be used to discourage complainants, and a sexual assault victim cannot be asked to take one.[11]
- Investigators should grant reasonable requests to protect a complainant's identity, such as meeting somewhere other than the investigator's office.[12]
Where else you can file
- A person who is afraid or concerned about complaining to the agency directly may file with the County Prosecutor or the Attorney General's Office instead.[13]
- County Prosecutor offices accept complaints about officers of any agency in their county, and must investigate any sign that someone was turned away or dissuaded from filing.[14]
- Complaints against a police chief, police director, sheriff, or head of internal affairs are handled by the County Prosecutor or the Attorney General's Office.[15]
- A complaint about an officer from a different agency should be referred to that officer's agency.[16]
Each county has its own prosecutor. Find the county for any department on its page, or by county: Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Salem, Somerset, Sussex, Union, Warren.
What you will be told
- The officer taking a complaint must explain the process and tell the person they will be kept informed of its status, if they ask, and of its final outcome.[17]
- Each agency must prepare a fact sheet on its internal affairs process, ideally given to the complainant when the complaint is made.[18]
- Every agency must notify complainants of the outcome of their complaints.[19]
- The complainant receives a letter explaining the outcome, including a brief reason when an allegation is not sustained.[20]
- The sample information sheet says the exact discipline is confidential, but the complainant is told the finding.[21]
What the four outcomes mean
- Sustained means a preponderance of the evidence shows the officer broke a law, rule, policy, or training standard.[22]
- Not sustained means the investigation did not find enough evidence to clearly prove or disprove the allegation.[23]
- Exonerated means a preponderance of the evidence shows the conduct happened but did not break any law, rule, policy, or training standard.[24]
- Unfounded means a preponderance of the evidence shows the alleged conduct did not happen.[25]
How often each outcome comes up, agency by agency: sustained, not sustained, exonerated, unfounded.
What becomes public afterward
Agencies report their internal affairs totals and their major discipline to the Attorney General, who publishes them. This site turns those releases into a page for every department and for every officer named in a major discipline record. A complaint becomes a count in the first; only final, serious discipline names an officer in the second. See how police discipline works and the methodology.