CJ Griffin Quoted in Editorial Calling for Further Disclosure of Police Data
CJ Griffin, director of the Justice Gary S. Stein Public Interest Center at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C., was quoted in an Opinion of the Star Ledger Editorial Board, “AG Grewal’s mandate to release bad cop data comes up short.” The Opinion discusses the New Jersey Attorney General’s recent order as only the first step toward police accountability and reform and calls for disclosure of all relevant records of misconduct.
“All internal affairs records are still exempt from public scrutiny, and unless we see those, we have no way of determining whether misconduct was swept under the rug,” says attorney CJ Griffin of Pashman-Stein, the open records [attorney].
“We need open access to files — not just a neatly worded sentence or two about why major discipline was imposed upon certain officers. We need to identify when the system hasn’t worked.”
The Opinion notes that Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella says he ordered the 72 departments in his county to “summarize” its IA complaints and how they resolved.
Griffin is dubious. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” she says, because if past is prologue in the clandestine police culture, “I fear ‘summary’ will just show ‘Committed a rules violation."
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