NEWARK, NJ — The Department of Justice announced Monday an investigation into allegations of excessive force, discriminatory policing and other violations by the police department of New Jersey’s largest city.
The move comes eight months after the state American Civil Liberties Union complained of rampant misconduct and lax internal oversight in the Newark Police Department, though federal and city officials said the ACLU’s petition wasn’t the main reason for the probe.
The city laid off more than 160 police officers at the end of last year to close a budget gap, marking the city’s largest force reduction in 32 years. Last week, incoming Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy was his pick to be police superintendent of Chicago.
The organization said that out of 261 complaints filed with the police department’s internal affairs division from 2008 to 2009, only one complaint, alleging an improper search, was found credible. It said the city had paid $4.8 million over 2 1/2 years to settle 38 cases brought against police by residents or department employees, with at least three dozen lawsuits pending.
Newark police and city officials, including Mayor Cory Booker, who is Black, had called some of the ACLU’s allegations frivolous and inaccurate when the petition was filed, arguing that the group skewed the data and exaggerated problems.
McCarthy said he had implemented several reforms in the department since taking over in 2006, including an agencywide performance monitoring system, new compliance and integrity tests to ensure that complaints were properly received and processed by the department, and revamping the internal affairs division.
Of 26 civilian lawsuits against the police that were cited by the ACLU in its petition, more than two-thirds of the incidents predated McCarthy’s tenure.
Deputy Chief Samuel DeMaio, a longtime law enforcement officer in the city, has been named acting police director in Newark as McCarthy announced he was stepping down after being selected by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to be the new police superintendent in the nation’s third-largest city.
