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As reported by nj.com, after rolling out tougher rules in May for police departments’ internal affairs units, State Attorney General Paula Dow has released new reporting forms that omit a crucial question: How many complaints about police officers are being investigated at the end of each year? The new forms published Tuesday don’t require police departments to list the number of open investigations at year’s end, raising concerns among rights’ advocates that cases will continue to fall off the books, as they have for years.

“The intention with these forms is to provide a snapshot of accountability,” Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for Dow, said yesterday. “That reporting was never intended as a means to track individual cases.” But Deborah Jacobs, executive director of ACLU-NJ, who initially supported Dow’s proposals until she saw the finished product on Tuesday, called it a “huge step backward.” She added, “It’s the more serious internal affairs complaints that take longer to investigate.”

Critics said it was the second time this month that Dow limited access to public data. Earlier this month, she restricted information on overtime compensation for state law enforcement officers. Her office said today she was only codifying a set of legal precedents dating to 2002. Jacobs said there was another problem as well. “We need an attorney general who will stick around for more than a year or two and dig in to fix the serious ongoing police practices issues that the ACLU has been raising for years,” she said.

State and local officials said that despite the omission on the new forms, police departments will have no problems policing their own. Critics said it leaves members of the public out of the loop if they want to track important data that has been consistently spotty for the last decade.

The Attorney General’s Office said that under Dow’s new system, county prosecutors have a more prominent role monitoring internal affairs complaints, analyzing all the numbers and squaring away any discrepancies. Previously, counties have not carried out those duties. The forms in question allow the public to review police departments’ data.

Jacobs did praise other parts of Dow’s new policies. Police departments must now track complaints by officer to watch for patterns; they must devote more resources to training; and they must publicize summaries of the most serious complaints, though they don’t have to name officers. “It is absolutely critical that law enforcement agencies investigate allegations against officers thoroughly and fairly, and that we provide the public with meaningful data about the complaints,” Dow said in May.

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As reported by nj.com, North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue’s residents-only hiring policy discriminates against blacks applying to be on the force, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. In issuing its decision, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Newark branch of the NAACP, which brought the initial lawsuit in 2007 on behalf of firefighter candidates Allen Wallace, Lamara Wapples, and Altarik White.

“The judges’ decision covered every issue…the argument that a broader hiring process would discriminate against Hispanics (in North Hudson) is thoroughly incorrect,” said one of the NAACP’s attorneys in the matter. ‘Obviously, we’re pleased.”

The Court noted that as of 2000, the population of North Hudson’s member municipalities North Bergen, Weehawken, West New York, Guttenberg, and Union City was 69.6 percent Hispanic, 22.9 percent white non-Hispanic, and 3.4 percent African-American. 

The attorney for North Hudson Regional said the department is “disappointed” by the Court’s ruling. “The decision is inherently unfair to NHRFR communities, particularly the large Hispanic population. There are various other federally mandated policies in other jurisdictions,” he said, adding the department will file for an “en banc” hearing.

A “en banc” hearing would be heard by all of the judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. An application for such a hearing must be filed within 14 days of the original ruling. If it is heard, the majority opinion rules. The only other arena for an appeal would be the U.S. Supreme Court.

In its ruling, the federal appeals court took into consideration reports from experts that in the tri-county area of Hudson, Bergen, and Essex, 37.4 percent of firefighters were African-American. Based on this percentage, 121 North Hudson Regional firefighters should be African-American, the court stated. Statewide, the percent of African-American firefighters is 20 percent. Based on that percentage, 65 North Hudson firefighters should be African-American, the court said.

Instead, out of 302 North Hudson Regional firefighters, 240 were white non-Hispanic, 58 were Hispanic, and only two were African-American, according to 2008 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) figures, the court said.

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As reported by nj.com, in what some advocates of open government call an unprecedented overreach, Attorney General Paula Dow has blocked the public from knowing how much overtime State Police troopers and other state law enforcement officials earn. Dow’s rule, which took effect this month, is part of a larger effort by the Attorney General to make confidential any records that “may reveal or lead to information that may reveal” an officer’s assignment.

The measure applies to the State Police and any other law enforcement officers that work under the Department of Law and Public Safety, but not local police departments, said Leland Moore, a spokesman for Dow. But open government advocates said the move by Dow restricts basic financial information, and that the taxpayers of New Jersey have a right to track public spending, including overtime. “Public employees, including law enforcement, have never liked the public knowing how much they make,” said Ron Miskoff of the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government. “But the public is paying the freight and I don’t see how knowing someone’s overtime is going to put anyone in danger.”

State records show that troopers earned $25.5 million in overtime last year, and as of September they made $15.7 million. Topping the list was Sergeant Robert Galik, assigned to Turnpike duty, who earned $63,221 in overtime last year. He had made $50,685 through the first nine months of this year, the second highest amount among troopers.

The State Treasury currently makes payroll information available for all state employees, including police, through a website created under Governor Chris Christie’s open government initiative. The website, yourmoney.nj.gov, billed as Christie’s “Transparency Center,” is updated every three months and is intended to help “taxpayers better understand public finances” and to “make government more accountable.” Moore said the Trasury will comply with Dow’s new rule and no longer post overtime information for police under the Department of Law and Public Safety.

Under the rules, total overtime figures for the department and its divisions will still be available. Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for Dow, said the rule reflected the long-standing position of the Attorney General’s Office. The Department of Corrections said there is no rule like the one imposed by the Attorney General to block overtime data for correctional officers.

Dow’s rule regarding overtime was enacted as part of several measures to make more records confidential, including those that detail background investigations or evaluations for job applicants and those concerning employee discipline, discharges or promotions. Many of the rules, other than the overtime provision, are similar to restrictions on public records under the state open records act. But Miskoff said they went too far in curtailing public access.

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As reported by nj.com, the sponsor of a bill to end five and six figure sick-leave payouts for retiring public employees in New Jersey is calling on Governor Chris Christie to sign compromise legislation.

Senator Paul Sarlo of Bergen County told The Associated Press the Governor is holding up the bill over a relatively small difference that would end unlimited payouts for all future employees. On Monday, Christie said he is unlikely to compromise.

The sticking point is over whether to eliminate the sick time’s cash value, as Christie wants. Sarlo wants retiring employees to cash out a nominal amount to discourage employees from using up their sick-leave every year. Christie vetoed legislation a year ago that would have capped the payouts at $15,000. Democrats then offered to reduce the cap to $7,500.

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As reported by nj.com, a divided state employee benefits commission today backed a Republican proposal to rein in rising accidental disability claims but said lawmakers should remove a provision that unfairly punishes workers who are permanently injured on the job.

The GOP bill would reduce accidental disability pensions across all retirement systems to 40 percent of final salaries. Currently, police and firefighters on accidental disability, for example, receive two-thirds of their final salaries. The pension reduction would bring accidental disability benefits on par with those offered under the ordinary disability plan and take away a major financial incentive that is helping drive up applications, supporters argue.

But a majority of members on the Pension and Health Benefits Commission said merging the two benefits ignores an important distinction: accidental disability pensions are supposed to compensate workers permanently injured by traumatic events. Others argue there are still important distinctions between the two, such as accidental pensions are tax free and workers qualify for them from their first day on the job while it takes 10 years for workers to qualify for an ordinary pension.     

The proposed changes come on the heels of multiple media reports on how accidental disability pension applications and awards have spiked since two separate Supreme Court decisions in 2007 and 2008 broadened eligibility requirements. The rulings forced the state’s pension boards to consider slip and fall injuries as eligible, along with mental illness.

Overall, applications for accidental disability pensions were up 34 percent and awards were up 87 percent over the five years, according to the Treasury Department. The rate of approval also rose to 53 percent in 2011 from 38 percent in 2007. Payouts for accidental disability pensions also increased during this time by 33 percent from $98.8 million to $131.5 million compared to a 20 percent increase in ordinary pension payouts from $270.6 million to $323.1 million.

The bill, sponsored by Assemblymen Declan O’Scanlon and Gary Chiusano, would stiffen requirements by requiring applicants to also qualify for the more stringent federal workman’s compensation benefits. It would also penalize accidental disability pension beneficiaries if they get another job by reducing their pensions.

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