“I am extremely gratified the court did say emphatically what we did was legal,” New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin said, hailing the state Supreme Court ruling that leaves his office in control of Paterson’s problem-plagued police department.
The decision, announced Wednesday, comes more than two years after the takeover, ending legal challenges by Paterson’s mayor and police union.
Social justice advocates cheered the court ruling.
“This is a win for the people of Paterson. The attorney general superseded Paterson’s police department because of the years of blatant police misconduct at the hands of their police department towards, in particular, the Black and brown people of Paterson,” said Henal Patel, law and policy director of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.
The high court justices, who unanimously reversed an appellate court ruling, focused on whether the Legislature had authorized the attorney general’s March, 2023 takeover of the police department. But the justices punted on the larger question of whether the law permits the state attorney general to unilaterally take over any municipality’s entire police department.
Even as it reversed the appellate decision, the high court warned, “This appeal raises significant questions about the claim … that the Attorney General ‘may supersede and take control of an entire law enforcement agency’ whenever he determines that step to be appropriate. The Legislature has the authority to address those questions directly and clarify its intent and expectations, should it decide to do so.”
“It was a more limited decision, and so we are calling on lawmakers in the state legislature to pass a law that expressly ratifies the attorney general’s ability to do that in other police departments around the state,” said Jeanne LoCicero, legal director of ACLU-NJ.
The ACLU, which filed an amicus brief in the case, pointed to the Trump administration’s decision to retract investigations of police departments like one in Trenton that alleged police used excessive force against the public.
“When the federal government is retreating from holding local police departments accountable, the attorney general’s ability to intervene, and make sure that New Jersey communities are getting the policing they deserve, and that’s lawful and constitutional — is really critical,” LoCicero said.
“Now if the state Legislature wants to grant whomever is the attorney general going forward that authority, then they have every right to do so,” said Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh, who had adamantly opposed the takeover. “But at the moment there is no law that states that an attorney general has the right to take over a police department in New Jersey.”
Sayegh, who had argued that point from the start, acknowledged the Supreme Court ruling means Paterson police remain under the attorney general’s control, because the Legislature supported it.
Both Sayegh and Platkin cited statistics that show crime trending downward in the city, and said that the frayed relationship between police and residents is beginning to mend. A local activist who often protested against police violence agrees.
“Where in the past, I’ve been on the opposite side with the signs, with the bullhorns, with the pickets and so forth — and looking at the data and looking just at the environment, the flow, the way people even respond to the police department, it’s different,” said Corey Teague.
Platkin said Wednesday that local control of the police department should occur, but said, “We’re not there, yet. We have more work to do. But everybody agrees, that is the long-term goal, here.”
