Newark, NJ police under scrutiny as the U.S. Justice Department launches a formal investigation.
The U.S Department of Justice will launch a formal investigation into the Newark Police Department, eight months after the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey alleged civil rights abuses by officers patrolling the state’s largest city, according to three sources with knowledge of the investigation.
The Justice Department investigation is expected to examine police practices, as well as internal affairs policies, the sources said. They said the probe follows months of preliminary interviews with officers that were conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark. The sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.
If the ACLU complaints are substantiated, federal authorities could call for the imposition of an outside monitor to ensure reforms are carried out inside the department, based on previous investigations in New Jersey and throughout the country.
The ACLU petition filed in September presented an exhaustive catalog of lawsuits and internal affairs statistics and alleged the department was "beset with serious systemic problems."
The petition said that out of 261 complaints in 2008 and 2009 involving excessive force; differential treatment; or improper arrest, entry or search, only one was sustained.
A subsequent Star-Ledger analysis of department records showed the outcome of one of every 10 internal affairs complaints filed against Newark police officers from 2000 to 2008 was not reported to the Attorney General’s Office as required by state guidelines.
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