••• Police secrecy makes oversight a difficult task

On April 26, 2010, a Piscataway man sued Monroe Township, its police department and two of its police officers for racially discriminating against him at a local supermarket on Jan. 29, 2010.

The man alleged that he went to the local Stop & Shop to purchase a money order to send back to relatives in his home country of Jamaica. After buying the money order, the man, who is African- American, claims he was eating pizza at the supermarket’s cafe when the two officers approached him.

According to the lawsuit, a verbal exchange then took place, during which the officers asked the plaintiff what he was doing there, and he responded that he was eating. The officers then allegedly commented that his last name did not sound like that of someone of his apparent race or from his native country and told him they were going to arrest him.

Instead of taking him to the police station, the officers allegedly took the man to the residence that he shared with a home health aide. The two officers allegedly pushed the man through the front doorway and entered the residence despite the home health aide telling them that they weren’t allowed to come in. After allegedly asking “persistent questions” of both the man and the home health aide, the officers were satisfied and left.

After reading the suit, I thought, OK, that’s this man’s side of the story. Knowing that lawsuit plaintiffs and their lawyers don’t always tell the unvarnished truth about encounters with police, I submitted a records request on May 7, 2010, to Monroe Township to get the police officers’ side of the story.

My requests were met with considerable resistance. After several exchanges with police officials and the township lawyer, I ended up getting two relevant documents. The first is a police dispatch report showing that police were dispatched to the Stop & Shop on Perrineville Road on Jan. 29, 2010, at 1:46 p.m. The other is an incident report prepared six days after the incident showing that the two officers were dispatched to investigate a report of a “suspicious person.” The narrative of the report, which spans two pages, was almost totally redacted, i.e., blacked out.

Why all the secrecy? Police officers play a unique role in society. They have the power to arrest and to use deadly weapons. With such authority comes a critical need for public oversight.

In this case, a man has publicly accused two police officers of engaging in “conduct [that] was obviously racist and egregious.” Yet, when I attempted to learn the police department’s side of the story, I was met with resistance and ultimately given two documents that are redacted so heavily that they’re meaningless.

The Monroe police should release enough details regarding their encounter with the man in question to allow citizens to judge whether the officers acted reasonably under the circumstances.

John Paff

Chair New Jersey Libertarian Party Open

Government Advocacy Project

Somerset section of Franklin