Asbury Park Press

What does it take to rid New Jersey of bad cops?

Backbone on the part of police chiefs, judges and public officials would help. But what New Jersey needs most is a formal, centralized process for removing rogue cops that takes the decision out of the hands of local police departments.

Two more examples of the need for an independent state licensing and review board came to light recently with the arrest of a Long Branch cop on charges of criminal sexual contact and harassment of a 21-year-old woman, and the decision by a state Office of Administrative Law judge to allow five Hackensack police officers who the city found guilty of unlawfully breaking into an apartment and falsifying a police report to return to active duty.

Don't police officers, like everyone else, deserve their day in court? Yes. But the evidence should be weighed by a panel free of internal politics, one that holds law enforcement officers to the highest standards of integrity. Clearly, as our The Shield series and numerous updates to it have demonstrated, the current process is working. Decisions about whether, and how severely, to discipline police officers shouldn't be left to individual departments, each with their own set of rules, internal investigation protocols ideas about what constitutes unacceptable behavior.

In the Long Branch case, the officer recently charged with criminal sexual contact, Patrick Joyce Jr., had pleaded guilty in 2011 to aggravated assault after he and another officer were involved in an off-duty fight that left a third man with a broken jaw. Joyce accepted a plea bargain that resulted in a year's probation.

In many other states, Joyce would have been kicked off the force and prohibited from being a cop in any other department. That's what needs to happen in New Jersey.

In 31 states, the state agencies involved with training and licensing police officers also have the authority to revoke the license or certificate of a police officer guilty of various types of misconduct spelled out by state law or administrative regulations. In Florida, a commission has broad authority to decertify police officers.

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For our story about Joyce, New Jersey State Police Benevolent Association President Pat Colligan was asked whether there are adequate safeguards in place to ensure New Jersey police officers act appropriately. He responded in an email that Joyce had been charged: "... Is that somehow not an adequate safeguard?"

Hardly. If New Jersey had a system in place that was weighted more toward protecting citizens than bad cops, things might have turned out differently. What is certain is that until New Jersey joins the ranks of states that make the safety of residents and the integrity of police officers a priority, rogue cops will continue to put the public at risk.

In response to our story, state Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, pledged to pursue legislation to stop bad cops from keeping their jobs. That's a pledge voters in his district should demand he keep.