A training conference attended by more than 200 New Jersey police officers featured “offensive and discriminatory content” against women and racial minorities, and promoted potentially unlawful police tactics, the state comptroller has found.
In a report released on Wednesday, the state comptroller’s office portrayed an environment in which speakers and instructors at the 2021 Atlantic City conference demeaned women and minorities while appearing to endorse “questionable” policing tactics, including traffic stop practices the comptroller deemed unconstitutional — such as pulling a driver over on a “hunch” or a “gut feeling.”
The six-day conference, which almost 1,000 officers from around the country attended, had in its audience more than 200 officers from various New Jersey agencies and municipalities — and that at least $75,000 in public funds was spent for them to attend, not including paid time off or training days used for the event.
“Quality police training can play a crucial role in ensuring law enforcement is equipped with the knowledge, expertise, and experience to navigate complex and difficult situations safely,” the report reads. “But training that encourages officers to employ techniques that violate civil liberties, disparage legitimate public safety initiatives, undermine police reform efforts, and promote a toxic culture in which women and racial and ethnic minorities are made to feel unwelcome — this is not training that should be paid for with New Jersey’s public money.”
The report said that speakers at the conference made more than 100 “discriminatory and harassing” comments, “with repeated references to speakers’ genitalia, lewd gestures, and demeaning quips about women and minorities.”
The event also romanticized a “militaristic” approach to policing, while presenters “spoke disparagingly of the internal affairs process; promoted an ‘us vs. them’ approach; and espoused views and tactics that…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply