CJ Griffin Quoted in New Jersey Monitor Discussing Continued Lack of Police Transparency Despite Attorney General Directives
CJ Griffin, partner and director of the Justice Gary S. Stein Public Interest Center at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, was quoted in the New Jersey Monitor article “Nearly 400 New Jersey cops faced major discipline last year”. The article discusses how the Attorney General’s directives regarding police transparency in New Jersey is falling short.
“The ongoing problem is still that there’s really no oversight by the Attorney General’s Office in how much these agencies are disclosing,” said attorney CJ Griffin, a vocal proponent of policy accountability. “Some of these agencies just write ‘violation of rules and regulations,’ which tells us nothing. It’s essentially not complying with the policy.”
As with last year’s initial release of this data, this year’s includes some very specific information about why some officers were disciplined — like Pagan’s Instagrammed joyride video — while other law enforcement agencies gave vague descriptions. The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office suspended Curtis Shaffer for 180 days for what it described as him using “used his police powers to violate the rights of a subordinate.”
Agencies that provided hardly any details should be required to fill in the blanks, Griffin added. Otherwise, she said, “it makes the directive itself seem very performative. As it is now, it’s not a good accountability or transparency tool because we’re getting so little information from these reports that they raise more questions.”
To view the full article, click here.
