Officer record · As reported by the employing agency

John Tacopino

Freehold Township Police Department · 1 record · 2022

About this data

Records on this page come from the Attorney General's major discipline releases: final, post-appeal discipline as reported by the employing agency. They are sustained charges, not allegations.
All figures are self-reported by agencies to the New Jersey Attorney General and shown as reported. Blank fields read "not reported," never "no."
Data is a yearly snapshot. Cases are not tracked across years, and major discipline appears only in the year it became final after all appeals.
In internal affairs data, allegations are not findings: many complaints end unfounded, exonerated, or not sustained.
Any compensation figure below comes from New Jersey Treasury pension data, a separate source from the discipline records. It is matched to this officer by name and employing agency at high confidence, not by certified identity.

Full caveats and definitions: methodology. To request a correction against the official record: corrections.

Major discipline · 2022^[1]

DemotedSuspended 10 days

Rank as reported: Sergeant
Sustained charge(s): Obedience to Laws and Regulations, Command of Scene, Impartial Attitude, Responsibilities of a Ranking Officer, Responsibilities of a Police Officer
Separated while IA pending: not applicable (collected 2023 and later)

Plain-language summary (this site, from the cited record only)

Sergeant John Tacopino was demoted and suspended for 10 days by the Freehold Township Police Department. On February 25, 2022, during a motor vehicle crash investigation, Tacopino failed to properly command the scene and ensure a thorough investigation was completed. The department reported that he failed to remain impartial and acted with deference to the driver, who was a sworn police officer.

Synopsis as reported by the agency

On February 25, 2022, during the course of a motor vehicle crash investigation, Sgt. Tacopino failed to properly command the scene and ensure a thorough investigation was completed. Sgt. Tacopino failed to remain impartial and acted with deference to the driver who was a sworn police officer.

Compensation and pension

Active member · NJ Treasury YourMoney^[2]

This site: records-based match

Base salary (pension basis): $148,999
Pension fund: Police and Firemen's Retirement System (PFRS)
Reported years of service: 20 years, 3 months

How to read this

The amount is as reported by the New Jersey Department of the Treasury in its YourMoney pension data, as of March 31, 2026. It is the pension-basis figure and may not include overtime, accrued leave, stipends, or other pay. The link between this officer and this pension record is a records-based match at high confidence (exact name and exact employing agency), not a certified identity. If it is wrong, we will remove it: corrections.

Sources

[1]New Jersey Major Discipline Data, 2020-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Major Discipline Data", row 2254. Snapshot retrieved 2026-07-03. ↩
[2]YourMoney Active Pension Members (PFRS/SPRS subset). New Jersey Department of the Treasury. Row 240301, snapshot as of March 31, 2026. Derived from the public YourMoney Active Pension Members dataset, https://www.yourmoney.nj.gov/. ↩