Signed by Governor Phil Murphy

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that establishes a minority recruitment program for police departments.

Highlights:

• Requires each law enforcement agency in the state to establish a minority recruitment and selection program monitored by the Attorney General that ensures each agency is comprised of officers who reflect the diversity of the community they are protecting by (Sec 2):

• Setting specific goals for recruiting and hiring minorities and females;

• Establishing time frames for meeting these goals;

• Describing methods of evaluating whether these goals are met; and

• Setting forth corrective action to be taken if the agency fails to meet these goals.

• Requires each law enforcement agency to post its minority recruitment selection program plan on the agency’s official website (Sec 2).

• Requires the county prosecutor to monitor the results of the minority recruitment and selection programs established by the county municipal law enforcement agencies and report the information annually to the Attorney General (Sec 2).

• Requires the Attorney General to monitor the results of the minority recruitment and selection programs established by the Division of State Police and other state law enforcement agencies (Sec 2).

• Requires the Attorney General to report a summary of the results from the above highlight to the governor, the president of the senate, the speaker of the general assembly, and on the Department of Law and Public Safety’s website (Sec 2).

• Requires each state law enforcement agency to report annually to the Attorney General and each municipal and county law enforcement agency information about (Sec 3):

• The age, gender, race, and ethnicity of the law enforcement officers currently appointed to the law enforcement agency;

• The age, gender, race, and ethnicity of the law enforcement officer position in the preceding calendar year;

• The age, gender, race, and ethnicity of applicants appointed to the agency in the preceding calendar year;

• The reasons for denying applicants an appointment to the law enforcement agency; and 

• The age, gender, race, and ethnicity of each law enforcement officer promoted within the agency in the preceding calendar year, including the position to which the officer was promoted.

• Requires each municipal law enforcement agency, county prosecutor, and state law enforcement agency to publish in the agency’s annual report the information in the above sub-highlights (Sec 3).

Full Bill Text