LEGISLATIVE FISCAL ESTIMATE

ASSEMBLY, No. 4515

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

219th LEGISLATURE

 

DATED: AUGUST 31, 2020

 

 

SUMMARY

 

Synopsis:

Requires AG to establish law enforcement officer use of force data collection and reporting system.

Type of Impact:

Annual State, County, and Municipal Expenditure Increases.          

Agencies Affected:

Department of Law and Public Safety; State, County, and Municipal Law Enforcement Agencies.

 

 

Office of Legislative Services Estimate

Fiscal Impact

Year 1 

Year 2 

Year 3 

 

State Expenditure Increase

Indeterminate

 

Local Expenditure Increase

Indeterminate

 

 

 

 

·         The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) finds the bill will result in annual expenditure increases for the State and local law enforcement agencies, but the costs to establish a law enforcement officer use of force data collection and reporting system by the Office of the Attorney General to meet the requirements of this bill are indeterminate.  It is unknown whether there will be additional expenditures for annual data collection and reporting, or the personnel and technology upgrades which may be associated with the collection and reporting of the required data.

 

·         The Office of the Attorney General currently is operating a pilot “Police Use of Force Portal” program in six municipalities: Bridgeton, Dover, Linden, Millville, Paterson, and South Brunswick.

 

 

BILL DESCRIPTION

 

      This bill requires the Attorney General to establish and implement an electronic data collection and reporting system for tracking incidents of use of force by law enforcement officers in this State.

      Law enforcement agencies are required by the bill to use a standard reporting form prescribed by the Attorney General to record data describing each incident of use of force by a law enforcement officer. The data on these forms is to be uploaded to the database through a secure portal.

      The bill requires the data collection and reporting system to be searchable by law enforcement agencies and members of the public. The Attorney General is required to develop guidelines to ensure accurate and secure transmission, storage, scrubbing, and analysis of the data in the data collection and reporting system.

 

 

FISCAL ANALYSIS

 

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

 

      None received.

 

 

OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE SERVICES

 

      The OLS finds the bill will result in annual expenditure increases for the State and local law enforcement agencies, but the costs to establish a law enforcement officer use of force data collection and reporting system by the Office of the Attorney General to meet the requirements of this bill are indeterminate.  It is unknown whether there will be additional expenditures for annual data collection and reporting, or the personnel and technology upgrades which may be associated with the collection and reporting of the required data.

 

      Expenditure Increases:   It is the understanding of the OLS that the Office of the Attorney General currently is operating a pilot “Police Use of Force Portal” program in six municipalities: Bridgeton, Dover, Linden, Millville, Paterson, and South Brunswick. The goal is to establish a Statewide, uniform database to aggregate data and compare information across agencies. Reportedly, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the database was to be accessible to all law enforcement agencies by July 1, 2020 and to be accessible to the public at a later date.

      The OLS finds that expenditures may be required for resources needed at the State, county, and municipal levels to establish a database or modify an existing database, to train personnel on the proper collection and entry of data, to collect and retain the data, and to complete data collection and reporting requirements Statewide from the various agencies as required in this bill.

 

 

Section:

Law and Public Safety

Analyst:

Kristin Brunner Santos

Senior Fiscal Analyst

Approved:

Frank W. Haines III

Legislative Budget and Finance Officer

 

 

This legislative fiscal estimate has been produced by the Office of Legislative Services due to the failure of the Executive Branch to respond to our request for a fiscal note.

 

This fiscal estimate has been prepared pursuant to P.L.1980, c.67 (C.52:13B-6 et seq.).