TRENTON, NJ - In what appears to be a case of cause and effect, Fox News Digital reports that New Jersey has seen “a sharp decline” in traffic stops, which has likewise led to increased crashes on the state’s highways, some of them fatal. The slowdown in enforcement came at about the same time that the agency was facing accusations of racial profiling.
“If you enforce traffic laws, crashes go down. If you do not enforce them, crashes go up,” said Betsy Brantner Smith, a spokesperson for the National Police Association. “Accidents are largely created by a disparity in speed, and unless we want to admit that, then we’re [not] going to fix it.”
As a result of what is being widely considered a “job action,” New Jersey’s attorney general Matthew Platkin has promised to open an investigation into how the decrease in enforcement “was orchestrated” and promised accountability.
According to a New York Times report, once traffic enforcement decreased, car crashes, some of which were fatal, increased by 18%.
This coincided with a report from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability examining traffic stops made by New Jersey troopers between 2009 and 2021. That report alleged troopers had engaged in racial profiling. Union leaders then informed their members that they would be placed “under a microscope” and scrutinized for every stop they made. In what was deemed an alleged response to that report, traffic stops went down.
In the wake of the George Floyd death in 2020, many cities and states implemented so-called “police accountability” bills, which in some cases removed qualified immunity from police officers. In response and in fear of getting personally sued and losing everything they owned through frivolous lawsuits, some officers simply ceased stopping cars.
“The American public is going to have to decide, what do you want? Do you want cops to enforce the law, or do you want somebody to adhere to some sort of manufactured or false or politically correct policy when it comes to enforcing the law?” Brantner Smith said. “It is a very untenable situation for the troopers, and frankly, it’s an untenable situation for the citizens.”
In response to the Times report, Platkin lashed out at the state police.
‘I am deeply disappointed that this well-deserved reputation for serving the public good has been tainted by the alleged and unprecedented slowdown in State Police traffic enforcement from approximately July 2023 to March 2024,” Platkin said in a statement where he announced a special counsel probe. “I am particularly concerned that this slowdown may have coincided with increased crashes and fatalities on our roadways.”
Platkin failed to mention that the increase in fatal car crashes happened to coincide with New Jersey legalizing recreational marijuana, which occurred in February 2021. That could explain, at least in part, some of the increase in fatal motor vehicle crashes, some say.
Platkin appointed Preet Bharara, an Obama-era US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, as special counsel overseeing the investigation. Bharara is also a former lawyer for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
In a statement, Bharara pledged to “conduct a fair and rigorous investigation” and was “deeply honored” by the appointment.
The racial profiling probe analyzed traffic stops between 2009 and 2021 and accused New Jersey troopers of “enforcement practices that result in adverse treatment toward minority motorists.”
Brantner Smith, however, dismissed claims of bias, noting that over 60% of those pulled over were white, while just under 19% were black and 13.5% were Hispanic.
“Even during the day, when you’re sitting in traffic, or you’re driving down the freeway, can you see the race of the person in front of you unless you pull up beside them?” she asked rhetorically. “And radar, when we’re talking about primarily speeding violations, radar doesn’t have a race setting.”
Brantner Smith called the probes into the state police part of a “backdoor” campaign against police.
“The public knows this, undoubtedly, that the police have been cut off at the knees,” she told Fox News Digital. “This is just a very soft way to be anti-police. It’s almost a way to defund the police without defunding, without talking about defunding them, without making anti-police statements publicly.”
She downplayed any chance the special counsel would find anything untoward about the state police and said the odds of criminal charges were slim.
“The most ridiculous part of this is the criminal investigation,” she continued. “The most horrific part of it are these additional accidents.”
Comments
35 days ago | Comment by: arthur
Well, seems to me that when you threaten to put the cops 'under a microscope' for each and every stop they make, then what do you expect? Of course they are going to make less stops, as they are now going to be themselves profiled for the stops they make and are going to be called 'racist' when they stop someone that is not the right color, even if that person is guilty of something. Seems to me these officers have a valid point.