Plain-language summary (this site, from the cited record only)
Officer Richard Watkins was suspended for 180 days by the Hamilton Township Police Department in Mercer County in 2020. According to the agency, Watkins misused Division property and was absent without leave from his assigned post without authorization. The record states that he left his assigned post and used a police vehicle to transport his dog. No specific sustained charges were reported.
Officer was suspended for 180 days for misuse of Division property and being AWOL from assigned post without authorization. The officer left his assigned post and used a police vehicle to transport his dog.
Compensation and pension
No confident pension match found. 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. Where that bar is not met, nothing is shown rather than a guess. See methodology for how these matches are made and what is withheld.
Similar records
AnalysisComputed by this site from shared agency, year, charge category, and sanction outcome. Not a legal or factual equivalence.
Brandon Walker · Hamilton Township Police Department · 2024
Suspended 28 days
Sustained charge(s): Body Worn Camera Violation and Search and Seizure Policy Violation
What is a summary of Richard Watkins's major discipline record?
Officer Richard Watkins was suspended for 180 days by the Hamilton Township Police Department in Mercer County in 2020. According to the agency, Watkins misused Division property and was absent without leave from his assigned post without authorization. The record states that he left his assigned post and used a police vehicle to transport his dog. No specific sustained charges were reported.
What is Richard Watkins's major discipline record at Hamilton Township Police Department?
Richard Watkins has one major discipline record at Hamilton Township Police Department in the New Jersey Attorney General's 2020-2025 releases, from 2020. These are final, adjudicated actions, not allegations.
Does Richard Watkins's record show a termination?
The major discipline records shown here do not report a termination for Richard Watkins at Hamilton Township Police Department.
How large is Hamilton Township Police Department, the department Richard Watkins worked for?
Hamilton Township Police Department reported 173 sworn officers to the FBI for 2025. This is department-level context from the FBI's Law Enforcement Employees census, not a statement about Richard Watkins individually.
How does Hamilton Township Police Department score on this site's report card?
This site's report card places Hamilton Township Police Department in the lowest fifth of peers of its peer group on reported internal affairs volume and discipline severity. The grade is analysis by this site, not an official rating, and it describes the department, not Richard Watkins individually.
Sources
[1]New Jersey Major Discipline Data, 2020-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Major Discipline Data", row 2874. Snapshot retrieved 2026-07-03. ↩
[2]FBI Law Enforcement Employees (LEE), New Jersey subset. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Row 8372. Derived from the public Law Enforcement Employees (LEE) / Police Employee Data dataset (1960-2025), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/. ↩