ASSEMBLY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 2394

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JUNE 15, 2020

      The Assembly Community Development and Affairs Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 2394.

This bill requires each State, county, and municipal law enforcement agency in New Jersey to establish a minority recruitment and selection program in accordance with guidelines issued by the Attorney General. The purpose of these programs is to ensure that law enforcement agencies in this State reflect the diversity of the population of the community the agency protects.

      Under the bill, each minority recruitment and selection program is required to set specific goals for recruiting and hiring minorities and females, establishing time frames for meeting these goals, and describing methods of evaluating whether these goals are met. Each program also is required to set forth corrective action to be taken if the agency fails to meet the goals of the program. The bill requires each law enforcement agency to post the recruitment and selection program on the agency’s official Internet website.

      The county prosecutors are responsible for monitoring the results of the recruitment and selection programs established by county and municipal law enforcement agencies. The Attorney General is responsible for monitoring the results of the programs established by the State Police and other State law enforcement agencies. The bill also establishes reporting requirements concerning the overall diversity of the law enforcement agencies throughout the State. The bill requires each State, county, and municipal law enforcement agency in this State to annually report on: (1) the age, gender, race, and ethnicity of the law enforcement officers currently appointed to the law enforcement agency; (2) the age, gender, race, and ethnicity of applicants for a law enforcement officer position in the preceding calendar year; (3) the age, gender, race, and ethnicity of applicants appointed to the agency in the preceding calendar year; (4) the reasons for denying applicants an appointment to the law enforcement agency; and (5) the age, gender, race, and ethnicity of each law enforcement officer promoted within the agency in the preceding calendar year, including the position to which the officer was promoted.

      The county prosecutor is required by the bill to forward this information to the Attorney General. The Attorney General is required to collect, gather, assemble, and collate the information forwarded by the county prosecutors and the information concerning State law enforcement agencies, including the Division of State Police, into an annual report to be reported to the Governor, President of the Senate, and Speaker of the General Assembly. The bill also requires this information to be posted on the official Internet website of the Department of Law and Public Safety. Each State, county, and municipal law enforcement agency also is required to publish this information in its annual report.