Former State Attorney General Peter Harvey is now monitoring Newark’s police consent decree for the U.S. Department of Justice. He’s set to deliver the annual Byrne lecture on the powers and purpose of the attorney general. NJTV News Correspondent Michael Hill spoke with him.
Hill: Mr. Harvey, thanks for much for talking to us. What’s the future of the consent decree in Newark?
Harvey: Well, I think it’s going to be as it is written. Remember the consent decree is a settlement agreement. It’s a written agreement signed by both parties, so just because one party says, “I’m not sure I want to pursue this anymore,” it doesn’t mean anything. The other party has a right to say, “No, you’re going to do exactly what you agreed to do.” And remember now, once the two parties have signed it, it’s not just a contract. It’s been filed in federal court, so now it’s in the supervision of a federal court. So you have both parties to the agreement now having filed in federal court what has become a court order. So I know, I’m pretty confident, that the city of Newark is going to continue the reforms that we are seeing taking place and taking hold for the next five years.
Hill: The judge in a case like this would not typically allow either side to drag its feet, to renege, to retreat?
Harvey: Well, that’s one of the reasons you have a judge. You have, and here we have a very good judge, a very smart judge and a very thoughtful judge who has been carefully supervising the consent decree and carefully asking questions of, not only me as the independent monitor, but of the parties at various status conferences that the court holds from time to time to explore the progress being made on the consent decree.
Hill: You said a very interesting word in this process. You said “independent.” What does that mean in a case like this?
Harvey: Very good question. The two parties to the consent decree don’t trust one another to verify compliance, so the Department of Justice does not trust Newark to self report its compliance. Newark doesn’t trust the other party, the Department of Justice, to necessarily fairly evaluate its compliance. So the two sides pick a third party — a neutral, an independent monitor to come in and verify if provisions have been completed or whether or not actions have been undertaken to complete those provisions or whether or not there is some stage of completion being undertaken by the Newark Police. So I have been agreed to by the parties and appointed by the court to be the independent monitor. And it’s not just coming in with a clipboard to check boxes, to say you’ve done this, you haven’t done that. It’s also to provide technical assistance. So I have a monitoring team made up of police professions who make suggestions. We don’t run the police and we don’t wish to run the police. The Newark Police have a very good and very able police director, Anthony Ambrose, and so our goal is to identify cities that have implemented modern policing techniques and make suggestions to Newark to observe those cities and then take from those cities the policies and the training that are adaptable for the city of Newark and mold them, tailor them, into a program that’s useful for Newark.
Hill: So, Mr. Harvey, despite the change in Washington, despite some of the language coming out of Washington which seems to be retreating on some of these agreements, or at least police reforms in several cities in America, the people in Newark can be confident that because you’re involved and because of these signed agreements that real reform will take place in the city of Newark.
Harvey: Yes, but not because I’m involved. I don’t hold myself in that high a regard.
Hill: We’ve seen you in action, we’ve heard you speak, we know what you’re capable of.
Harvey: You’ve very kind. I can tell you this, that I don’t see any change in the implementation of this consent decree. And I’m going to make sure that I’m doing everything and the monitoring team is doing everything we can to be of assistance. You’re going to see in the next couple of months probably the introduction of body cameras with the Newark Police. You’re going to see in the next couple of months the implementation of car cameras. You’re going to see new policies with respect to the use of force. Use of force meaning drawing your weapon, using your weapon, using physical force with residents on the street. And accompanying those policies, remember it’s not just a policy, you have to also train everybody in the police department on the new policy. And you have to do adult-based learning training, meaning you give people scenarios and you invite them to think through the policy and give you answers based upon the scenarios that you’ve given. You don’t simply give a lecture and tell people here’s what you have to do — A, B, C, D, E, F. You create factual scenarios and invite the audience to comment what it thinks they should do. And whether that is the right approach or not, the right approach based upon the training module that you implement.
Hill: Mr. Harvey, thank you very much.
Harvey: Thank you. I appreciate it.