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Statewide

Police discipline in New Jersey

Two separate things are reported, and they are easy to confuse. Major discipline is a small set of final outcomes: a termination, a demotion, or a suspension of more than five days, published once every appeal is finished. Internal affairs figures are complaint volumes, most of which are never sustained and none of which are findings against anyone.

Major discipline

Reported by agencies for 2020 through 2025. Each record names an officer, and every one of them appears on this site with its own source citation.

Records

3,006[1]

2020 to 2025

Officers named

2,298

Some appear more than once

Terminations

471

Records recording a termination

Agencies

340

With at least one record

counts · 6 reported years

Major discipline records by year, 2020 to 2025Major discipline records reported statewide rose from 226 in 2020 to 816 in 2025. Statewide publication began with the 2020 reporting year, so the series starts at a collection boundary rather than at a real zero.02004006008001,000Statewide reporting begins202020212022202320242025
Major discipline records by year, 2020 to 2025
Yearcounts
2020226
2021379
2022400
2023544
2024641
2025816
AnalysisWhat the rise does and does not show, as read by this site.

Reported records go up every year across this period, from 226 in 2020 to 816 in 2025. That is a fact about reporting, and it does not establish that misconduct rose. Statewide publication of major discipline began with the 2020 reporting year, agencies took different amounts of time to comply, and a record only appears once its appeal is exhausted, so recent years keep filling in after publication. A department reporting more may be a department reporting properly.

Internal affairs

Complaint and investigation volumes agencies reported for 2021 through 2025. These are allegations, not findings against anyone.

Statewide internal affairs totals by year, 2021 to 2025
YearInvestigationsIncidents
202114,41911,484
202216,45112,428
202317,38012,921
202416,26112,055
202517,99612,594

Internal affairs investigations per 1,000 residents, 2025

Per 1,000 residents · 21 counties

LowerHigher

Counties are grouped by rank into 6 equal-sized groups, compared against the other 20 shown here only. Shading is rate per 1,000 residents, not a grade or a judgment. Boundary values are printed above the ramp.

County outlines are generalized for display and are not legal boundaries. Population is from the 2020 Census. Internal affairs figures are more recent, so a per-resident rate mixes vintages.

Internal affairs investigations per 1,000 residents, 2025, by New Jersey countyInternal affairs investigations per 1,000 residents, 2025, for all 21 New Jersey counties. Highest: Camden, 4.59. Lowest: Ocean, 0.55.ATLBERBURCAMCAPCUMESSGLOHUNMERMIDMONMOROCEPASSALSOMSUSUNIWARHUD
Internal affairs investigations per 1,000 residents, 2025, by New Jersey county
Internal affairs investigations per 1,000 residents, 2025, by New Jersey county
Countyrate per 1,000 residents
Atlantic1.88
Bergen0.81
Burlington1.08
Camden4.59
Cape May1.80
Cumberland1.92
Essex3.42
Gloucester0.90
Hudson1.66
Hunterdon0.85
Mercer0.93
Middlesex0.72
Monmouth1.03
Morris0.87
Ocean0.55
Passaic1.27
Salem1.02
Somerset0.89
Sussex1.07
Union1.29
Warren0.89

Counties ranked

  1. 1Camden4.59 (group 6 of 6, lowest to highest)
  2. 2Essex3.42 (group 6 of 6, lowest to highest)
  3. 3Cumberland1.92 (group 6 of 6, lowest to highest)
  4. 4Atlantic1.88 (group 6 of 6, lowest to highest)
  5. 5Cape May1.80 (group 5 of 6, lowest to highest)
  6. 6Hudson1.66 (group 5 of 6, lowest to highest)
  7. 7Union1.29 (group 5 of 6, lowest to highest)
  8. 8Passaic1.27 (group 4 of 6, lowest to highest)
  9. 9Burlington1.08 (group 4 of 6, lowest to highest)
  10. 10Sussex1.07 (group 4 of 6, lowest to highest)
  11. 11Monmouth1.03 (group 3 of 6, lowest to highest)
  12. 12Salem1.02 (group 3 of 6, lowest to highest)
  13. 13Mercer0.93 (group 3 of 6, lowest to highest)
  14. 14Gloucester0.90 (group 3 of 6, lowest to highest)
  15. 15Warren0.89 (group 2 of 6, lowest to highest)
  16. 16Somerset0.89 (group 2 of 6, lowest to highest)
  17. 17Morris0.87 (group 2 of 6, lowest to highest)
  18. 18Hunterdon0.85 (group 1 of 6, lowest to highest)
  19. 19Bergen0.81 (group 1 of 6, lowest to highest)
  20. 20Middlesex0.72 (group 1 of 6, lowest to highest)
  21. 21Ocean0.55 (group 1 of 6, lowest to highest)

Per 1,000 residents, 2025.

Not on this map: the State Police, the Department of Corrections, Transit Police, and other state-level agencies. They operate across county lines and the Attorney General reports them outside the county system, so their activity appears in no county here. They are in the rankings.

County investigations for the latest year divided by 2020 Census population, times 1,000. State agencies operate in every county and are reported outside the county system, so none of their investigations appear in any county. Map the other measures.

Sources

  1. [1]New Jersey Attorney General, Major Discipline Data 2020-2025. Derived by counting rows in the cited source files; see /methodology. ↩
  2. [2]New Jersey Attorney General, Internal Affairs Agency Totals 2021-2025. ↩
  3. [3]New Jersey county boundaries. New Jersey Office of Information Technology, Office of GIS (NJOGIS). NJ_Counties_3857 (FeatureServer layer 0), https://services2.arcgis.com/XVOqAjTOJ5P6ngMu/arcgis/rest/services/NJ_Counties_3857/FeatureServer/0. 2020 boundary delineation. Retrieved 2026-07-27. Boundaries are generalized for display. This data set is not a survey document and must not be used as such. The polygons do not represent legal boundaries.
  4. [4]County population: 2020 Decennial Census, as republished by NJOGIS, carried on NJ_Counties_3857 (FeatureServer layer 0). New Jersey Office of Information Technology, Office of GIS (NJOGIS), https://services2.arcgis.com/XVOqAjTOJ5P6ngMu/arcgis/rest/services/NJ_Counties_3857/FeatureServer/0. Retrieved 2026-07-27.