CJ Griffin Quoted in The Retrospect Newspaper
CJ Griffin, partner and director of the Justice Gary S. Stein Public Interest Center at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C., was quoted an article by The Retrospect titled, “Secrecy Surrounds Local Police Misconduct Records.” The article discusses how police departments within the state of New Jersey have failed to publicly release records of police misconduct, which is supposed to happen annually, as per the 2020-5 directive issued by New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal.
According to Griffin, “Although the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision last year and the Attorney General’s directives require disclosure of major discipline, we’re still finding that so many agencies are insistent that secrecy is required and it often takes multiple objection letters and involvement of an attorney to pry internals affairs reports loose. And because the internal affairs reports aren’t subject to OPRA, we don’t really have an enforcement mechanism – there’s no fee-shift that would enable us to sue.”
“We need the legislation to make internal affairs reports subject to OPRA, so that police departments can take their obligations to be transparent seriously,” said Griffin.
To read the full article, click here.
