654 New Jersey Officers Suspended or Fired in 2025 Over 817 Offences

A new state report reveals 654 law enforcement officers across 169 New Jersey agencies faced major discipline last year, with offences ranging from sex crimes to uniform violations.

New Jersey police misconduct report exposes 817 offences across 169 agencies

njspotlightnews.org reports that 654 law enforcement officers from 169 agencies across New Jersey were suspended, demoted or fired in 2025, with their combined 817 offences documented in the latest annual report from the New Jersey Attorney General's Office.

The offences span a wide spectrum. A drunk off-duty sergeant drove the wrong way on a state highway and hit another car head-on, killing a man. A patrolman critically injured a cyclist in a hit-and-run and fled the scene. Other officers were found in possession of child pornography, attacked spouses, stole money, or sexually assaulted people in their custody.

Further infractions included violating police pursuit policies, testing positive for drugs while on duty, mishandling evidence, misplacing firearms, and accepting bribes to smuggle weapons and contraband to people in custody. One correctional officer tampered with inmates' tablets to cut their access to phones and other communications. Officers also illicitly searched internal databases to settle personal grievances.

At the other end of the scale, some officers were disciplined for uniform violations such as poor grooming and wearing earrings, while dozens faced consequences for insubordination, abuse of sick leave, on-duty naps, and habitual lateness or no-shows.

Joshua Munyon of the Atlantic City Police Department was suspended without pay after being criminally charged with sexually assaulting a handcuffed, intoxicated woman in his patrol car, according to the report.

Of those who faced major discipline — defined as suspensions longer than five days, demotions or terminations — seven were police chiefs. More than 100 were repeat offenders. Almost 120 resigned or retired before discipline could be finalised.

The report covers major discipline finalised in 2025 and is the first since Governor Mikie Sherrill took office in January. New Jersey introduced mandatory reporting in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, which prompted nationwide demands for law-enforcement accountability.

Beyond major discipline, the scale of alleged misconduct is considerably broader. State data show that agencies opened more than 16,000 internal affairs investigations last year, involving more than 10,000 unique officers stemming from more than 11,000 incidents. Three-quarters of those cases ended with investigators finding no violations. Of the cases where misconduct allegations were sustained, approximately 40% were resolved with verbal or written reprimands, 18% through training or counselling, and 14% through unpaid suspensions.

Attorney General Jen Davenport said transparency and accountability are central to maintaining public confidence in the state's 31,000 officers. "Maintaining faith in government and trust in law enforcement requires that residents know the State holds law enforcement to the highest professional standards," Davenport said in a statement.

Criminal justice advocates welcomed the continued reporting, particularly given recent moves at the federal level. The Trump administration has eliminated a federal police misconduct database, dropped civil rights investigations into troubled police forces including in Trenton, and ended federal oversight of others including Newark.

"While the federal government rolls back some of the transparency and tools we had to hold police accountable, New Jersey has to continue to fortify its walls," said Surraya Johnson, director of criminal justice reform at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. "We as a public need to continue to hold them accountable to make sure that they are upholding the oath that they took to protect and serve."

Marleina Ubel, a senior policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective, a Trenton-based research group, said the clearance rates indicate that police accountability should be more robust. She pointed to long-stalled legislation that would create civilian-led police review boards to make misconduct investigations more independent. "That is something that we should still be fighting for," Ubel said. "We need even more transparency than we have right now."

Maura Collinsgru, director of policy and advocacy for Newark-based New Jersey Citizen Action, said the breadth of disclosed misconduct underlines the value of such public reporting. "We're in a moment where the polarisation in our society, the economic stress that more and more people are under, the authoritarianism that's rising — all of that is a recipe for things like this to increase," Collinsgru said. "So it's more important than ever that we have that oversight."

The report was originally published by the New Jersey Monitor, a nonprofit publishing partner of NJ Spotlight News.

Source: Google News IE — Crime (en)