Suspended 327 daysSeparated while IA pending2023 · as reported
Detective Matthew Curtis was suspended for 327 days by the Island Heights Borough Police Department in 2023 and separated while an internal affairs matter was pending. According to the record, an Ocean County Prosecutor's Office investigation found Curtis failed to surrender a handgun after being named the defendant in a temporary restraining order and wrote and signed a letter stating he no longer owned it. In February 2023 he was charged with three offenses, including false reports, contempt of court, and certain persons not to possess weapons. He resigned.
All other conduct- Officer violated this standard of good behavior. Truthfulness- Officer was untruthful.
Separated while IA pending
Yes
Synopsis as reported by the agency
The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office conducted an investigation into Detective Curtis. The investigation discovered he failed to surrender a handgun after being named as the defendant in a temporary restraining order. He also wrote and signed a letter stating he no longer owned the handgun. In February of 2023, he was charged with three criminal offenses including false reports to law enforcement authorities, contempt of court, and certain persons not to possess weapons. He was suspended from duty pending the adjudication in court and ultimately resigned from his position with the Island Heights Police Department.
Similar records
AnalysisComputed by this site from shared agency, year, charge category, and sanction outcome. Not a legal or factual equivalence.
Dwayne Watkins · Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office · 2023
Suspended 30 daysSeparated while IA pending
Sustained charge(s): Neglect of Duty: Rules and Regulations 1:4.11; 3:2.12
same year · similar sanction outcome
Compensation and pension
No confident pension match found. This officer's record shows they resigned, retired, transferred, or otherwise separated from this agency while an internal affairs matter was pending, which can affect whether a current PFRS/SPRS record exists here. This site links a pension record to a named officer only when the name and the exact employing agency both match a New Jersey Treasury record. See methodology for how these matches are made and what is withheld.
Questions and answers
What is a summary of Matthew Curtis's major discipline record?
Detective Matthew Curtis was suspended for 327 days by the Island Heights Borough Police Department in 2023 and separated while an internal affairs matter was pending. According to the record, an Ocean County Prosecutor's Office investigation found Curtis failed to surrender a handgun after being named the defendant in a temporary restraining order and wrote and signed a letter stating he no longer owned it. In February 2023 he was charged with three offenses, including false reports, contempt of court, and certain persons not to possess weapons. He resigned.
What is Matthew Curtis's major discipline record at Island Heights Borough Police Department?
Matthew Curtis has one major discipline record at Island Heights Borough Police Department in the New Jersey Attorney General's 2020-2025 releases, from 2023. These are final, adjudicated actions, not allegations.
How large is Island Heights Borough Police Department, the department Matthew Curtis worked for?
Island Heights Borough Police Department reported 7 sworn officers to the FBI for 2025. This is department-level context from the FBI's Law Enforcement Employees census, not a statement about Matthew Curtis individually.
Sources
[1]New Jersey Major Discipline Data, 2020-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Major Discipline Data", row 1837. Snapshot retrieved 2026-07-03. ↩
[2]FBI Law Enforcement Employees (LEE), New Jersey subset. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Row 8514. Derived from the public Law Enforcement Employees (LEE) / Police Employee Data dataset (1960-2025), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/. ↩