Officer record · As reported by the employing agency

Robert Merlino

Department Of Corrections · 1 record · 2024

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 · 2024^[1]

Suspended 45 days

Rank as reported: Senior Correctional Police Officer
Sustained charge(s): N.J.A.C. 4A: 2-2.3(a) 6. an employee N.J.A.C. 4A: 2-2.3(a) 12. . C7: Fighting or creating a disturbance on state property. C11: an employee. D7: Violation of administrative procedures and/or regulations involving safety and security. E1: Violations of a rule, regulation, policy, procedure, order or administrative decision.
Separated while IA pending: No

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

The Department of Corrections suspended Senior Correctional Police Officer Robert Merlino for 45 days in 2024. On July 21, 2023, Merlino was involved in a verbal and physical altercation with another officer, using his arm to push away the other officer's arm. Several staff members had to intervene to de-escalate the situation. The sustained charges included fighting or creating a disturbance on state property and conduct unbecoming an employee.

Synopsis as reported by the agency

On July 21, 2023, Officer Merlino was involved in a verbal and physical altercation with another officer. Specifically, the Officer engaged in an intense verbal exchange with another Officer and used his arm to push away the arm of the other Officer. Several staff members had to intervene to de-escalate the situation.

Compensation and pension

Active member · NJ Treasury YourMoney^[2]

This site: records-based match

Base salary (pension basis): $92,528
Pension fund: Police and Firemen's Retirement System (PFRS)
Reported years of service: 7 years, 9 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 1363. Snapshot retrieved 2026-07-03. ↩
[2]YourMoney Active Pension Members (PFRS/SPRS subset). New Jersey Department of the Treasury. Row 213791, snapshot as of March 31, 2026. Derived from the public YourMoney Active Pension Members dataset, https://www.yourmoney.nj.gov/. ↩