Courts · Federal civil rights
Federal civil-rights lawsuits naming New Jersey police and jails
Cases filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey that list a New Jersey law enforcement agency among the parties, from the dockets CourtListener has copied out of PACER.[1] A lawsuit is an allegation, not a finding, and nothing here says how a case ended.
Cases (at least)
3,683
District of New Jersey
Agencies named
271
of 548 on this site
Police and other agencies
1,039
257 agencies
Jails and corrections
2,670
14 agencies
26 cases name both a jail or corrections agency and another agency, so they appear in both groups and the two group totals add up to more than the number of cases.
Police departments, sheriffs and prosecutors
Civil-rights, employment and disability cases. Prisoner civil-rights cases are counted only for corrections agencies, so a claim against arresting officers that was filed under a prisoner code is not counted here; the methodology explains why.
counts
| Category | counts |
|---|---|
| 1983 | 1 |
| 1986 | 1 |
| 1987 | 11 |
| 1988 | 10 |
| 1989 | 6 |
| 1990 | 6 |
| 1991 | 11 |
| 1992 | 13 |
| 1993 | 8 |
| 1994 | 16 |
| 1995 | 24 |
| 1996 | 10 |
| 1997 | 14 |
| 1998 | 15 |
| 1999 | 13 |
| 2000 | 17 |
| 2001 | 17 |
| 2002 | 7 |
| 2003 | 14 |
| 2004 | 29 |
| 2005 | 38 |
| 2006 | 40 |
| 2007 | 24 |
| 2008 | 46 |
| 2009 | 40 |
| 2010 | 41 |
| 2011 | 52 |
| 2012 | 42 |
| 2013 | 44 |
| 2014 | 35 |
| 2015 | 31 |
| 2016 | 44 |
| 2017 | 31 |
| 2018 | 51 |
| 2019 | 30 |
| 2020 | 26 |
| 2021 | 41 |
| 2022 | 46 |
| 2023 | 22 |
| 2024 | 20 |
| 2025 | 37 |
| 2026 | 15 |
217 more agencies are named in fewer cases; each department page lists its own.
Jails and corrections agencies
2,521 of these 2,670 cases carry a prisoner civil-rights or prison-conditions code, the categories for claims by people in custody. Filing waves show up as single-year spikes.
counts
| Category | counts |
|---|---|
| 1987 | 1 |
| 1988 | 6 |
| 1989 | 4 |
| 1990 | 11 |
| 1991 | 10 |
| 1992 | 11 |
| 1993 | 5 |
| 1994 | 11 |
| 1995 | 11 |
| 1996 | 2 |
| 1997 | 8 |
| 1998 | 6 |
| 1999 | 11 |
| 2000 | 17 |
| 2001 | 9 |
| 2002 | 12 |
| 2003 | 7 |
| 2004 | 27 |
| 2005 | 24 |
| 2006 | 41 |
| 2007 | 44 |
| 2008 | 29 |
| 2009 | 52 |
| 2010 | 58 |
| 2011 | 30 |
| 2012 | 51 |
| 2013 | 26 |
| 2014 | 32 |
| 2015 | 45 |
| 2016 | 1,634 |
| 2017 | 111 |
| 2018 | 34 |
| 2019 | 31 |
| 2020 | 37 |
| 2021 | 63 |
| 2022 | 46 |
| 2023 | 33 |
| 2024 | 27 |
| 2025 | 42 |
| 2026 | 11 |
By county
Each case is counted once per county, however many of the county's agencies it names. Statewide agencies, such as the State Police and the state Department of Corrections, belong to no county and are left out. Each county page lists its agencies.
Questions and answers
Does a lawsuit on this page mean the agency did something wrong?
No. A complaint is the plaintiff's account. These dockets record that a case was filed and when it closed, not how it ended: dismissal, settlement without admission, or a verdict either way. And an agency on a docket is a party, not necessarily the target.
Why are jails listed separately from police departments?
Most cases naming a jail or corrections agency are prisoner civil-rights or prison-conditions claims, and they arrive in waves. Counted together with police departments they would dominate every total.
Why does the page say "at least"?
Cases are found by matching the agency in a docket's party list or in its caption. A caption often names one defendant and then "et al.", so an agency listed only behind "et al." is missed. Every count is a floor.
Sources
- [1]Free Law Project (CourtListener), RECAP Archive of federal court dockets (copied from PACER), District of New Jersey, civil-rights natures of suit, dockets whose party list or caption names the agency; bulk docket file of 2026-09-30 plus search results, retrieved 2026-10-14. An agency named only behind "et al." is missed, so counts are a floor. A docket records that a case was filed, not how it ended. https://www.courtlistener.com/ ↩