NJ Institute for Social Justice Agrees With Termination of Newark Police Consent Decree
Image courtesy of New Jersey Institute of Social Justice Facebook
AC JosepH Media
NEWARK – Finding that the objective of the Newark Police Division’s (NPD) Consent Decree with the Department of Justice has been achieved, Judge Madeline Cox Arleo of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey on Nov. 20 ordered that the Consent Decree be terminated after nearly a decade.
Since 2016, the Institute has served as a member of the Independent Monitoring Team providing oversight on the implementation of the Consent Decree, ensuring that the Newark community had a voice in the creation of new policies and practices.
In her order, Judge Arleo found that “Newark has committed the time, effort and resources needed to implement systemic changes,” and that “NPD is vastly improved and has the infrastructure in place to continue to improve in the future.”
Judge Arleo concluded: “It is now time to return the NPD to its elected leadership and its community.”
The Institute agrees.
“Looking back over the last nine years, it is gratifying to see that the Consent Decree for Newark Police has been a springboard for change. Not only have there been 16 new policies established, but, crucially, trust is being rebuilt between the police and the community,” said Surraya Johnson, Director of the Criminal Justice Reform Program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. “Still, while the Consent Decree is coming to an end, the work is not. Achieving a healthy and racially just relationship between a police force and the people is an ongoing and ever-dynamic process. It is now up to City of Newark and its people to continue the process of dialogue, trust-building and reform.”
New policies established under the Consent Decree include important reforms such as bias-free policing, oversight mechanisms to normalize accountability, body and dashboard camera use and compliance, and community policing.
The Court noted that Newark has demonstrated its willingness to allocate budget resources to sustain reform practices, and that more than half of the NPD’s sworn members were hired under the reformed standards.
Over the past nine years, the Institute has ensured the community’s participation in police reform by conducting community surveys and has made sure that Newarkers remained at the heart of the reforms.
“We are grateful to have worked with the Newark community for deep engagement around the creation of 16 new policies that address core aspects of policing in the city,” said Ryan Haygood, President and CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. “This work is directly responsive to the community’s call for change dating back to the Newark Rebellion, and it’s been an honor to be part of this meaningful transformation. As the Consent Decree comes to an end, the role of monitor now passes on to the people of Newark, who must continue the work of change and hold the police accountable. And it passes to communities and advocates throughout the whole state, who must hold their police departments accountable, even without Consent Decrees.”
Background of the Newark Consent Decree
In the decades following the Newark Rebellion in 1967, law enforcement abuses were so pervasive that in July 2014, the Department of Justice announced that there had been a pattern of widespread civil rights violations in the Newark Police Department. It found that Newark’s police officers had no legal basis for 75 percent of their pedestrian stops from 2009-2012, which were used disproportionately against Black people. In addition, Newark police had been detaining innocent people for acts like “milling,” “loitering” or “wandering.”
In 2016, the federal court approved a panel of experts, led by former New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey, to serve as the Independent Monitoring Team of the Newark Department of Public Safety’s Police Division in accordance with a settlement reached by the Department of Justice and the City of Newark. The Institute has served on that monitoring team.
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