Patrol Officer Finch struck a suspect with an unauthorized flashlight and kneed the handcuffed suspect in the face, conduct the record describes as aggravated assault. Finch prepared, signed, and submitted a police report that contained several false or misleading statements, and he failed to activate his body worn camera. The Paterson Police Department both suspended Finch for 30 days and terminated him.
Officer committed aggravated assault by striking a suspect with an unauthorized flashlight and kneeing the handcuffed suspect in face. The officer prepared, signed and submitted a police report containing several false or misleading statements. The officer failed to activate his Body Worn Camera.
Similar records
AnalysisComputed by this site from shared agency, year, charge category, and sanction outcome. Not a legal or factual equivalence.
No confident pension match found. This officer's record shows a termination; a terminated officer would not have an active PFRS/SPRS record at this agency, which is one reason no match may exist 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. Other general possibilities include insufficient vesting, a role not covered by PFRS or SPRS, a deferred or vested status not reflected in a current snapshot, or a data-matching limitation. See methodology for how these matches are made and what is withheld.
Questions and answers
What is a summary of Spencer Finch's major discipline record?
Patrol Officer Finch struck a suspect with an unauthorized flashlight and kneed the handcuffed suspect in the face, conduct the record describes as aggravated assault. Finch prepared, signed, and submitted a police report that contained several false or misleading statements, and he failed to activate his body worn camera. The Paterson Police Department both suspended Finch for 30 days and terminated him.
What is Spencer Finch's major discipline record at Paterson Police Department?
Spencer Finch has one major discipline record at Paterson Police Department in the New Jersey Attorney General's 2020-2025 releases, from 2021. These are final, adjudicated actions, not allegations.
Does Spencer Finch's record show a termination?
Yes. At least one of Spencer Finch's major discipline records shows a termination, reported for 2021.
How large is Paterson Police Department, the department Spencer Finch worked for?
Paterson Police Department reported 412 sworn officers to the FBI for 2025. This is department-level context from the FBI's Law Enforcement Employees census, not a statement about Spencer Finch individually.
Sources
[1]New Jersey Major Discipline Data, 2020-2025. New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Sheet "Major Discipline Data", row 2657. Snapshot retrieved 2026-07-03. ↩
[2]FBI Law Enforcement Employees (LEE), New Jersey subset. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Row 8546. Derived from the public Law Enforcement Employees (LEE) / Police Employee Data dataset (1960-2025), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/. ↩