Officer record · As reported by the employing agency

Ruben Cortes

New Jersey Institute Of Technology 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]

Demoted

Rank as reported: PO
Sustained charge(s): Harassment in the Workplace, Conduct towards Others, All other Conduct, Retaliation
Separated while IA pending: not applicable (collected 2023 and later)

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

Officer Cortes was demoted by the New Jersey Institute of Technology PD after an investigation sustained charges of workplace harassment toward subordinates. The record states that on or around May 15, 2022, he engaged in inappropriate communication with an NJIT dispatcher about a grievance that had not yet been filed. By offering to purchase the dispatcher food in exchange for not filing a grievance, Cortes committed an act of quid pro quo harassment, and he was demoted to the rank of Police Officer. The sustained charges included Harassment in the Workplace, Conduct towards Others, and Retaliation.

Synopsis as reported by the agency

Officer Cortes was demoted as a result of an investigation with sustained charges surrounding workplace harassment (intimidation / retaliation threats) toward subordinate employees. Officer Cortes was found to have made threatening and inappropriate comments to subordinates. Specifically, Officer Cortes on or around May 15th, 2022 created a hostile work environment by constantly engaging in inappropriate communication with a NJIT Dispatcher about a grievance that had not yet been filed throughout his tour of duty on 5/15/22. By offering to purchase the Dispatcher food in exchange for him not to file a grievance, Officer Cortes committed an act of quid pro quo (non-sexual) harassment. Sergeant Cortes, was thusly demoted to the rank of Police Officer as a result.

Compensation and pension

Retired member · NJ Treasury YourMoney^[2]

This site: records-based match

Monthly pension allowance: $3,984.94
Monthly total (incl. cost-of-living): $3,984.94
Final salary basis: $95,639
Retired: September 2022
Pension fund: Police and Firemen's Retirement System (PFRS)
Reported years of service: 21 years

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 2159. Snapshot retrieved 2026-07-03. ↩
[2]YourMoney Retired Pension Members (PFRS/SPRS subset). New Jersey Department of the Treasury. Row 325987 (member 44292976), snapshot as of March 31, 2026. Derived from the public YourMoney Retired Pension Members dataset, https://www.yourmoney.nj.gov/. ↩