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The Morris County Courthouse

(Robert Sciarrino/ The Star-Ledger)

MORRISTOWN — A Mendham Township police officer has filed a lawsuit claiming he has been denied a promotion and opportunities for overtime in retaliation for not profiling younger drivers in traffic stops.

Officer Robert Wysokowski, a16-year veteran of the force, says that in 2005, then-Sgt. Steven Crawford, now the police chief, instructed him to “seek out and target younger drivers.”

Wysokowsi says he responded that the practice constituted “illegal profiling,” but Crawford told him it was “good police work,” or “words to that effect.”

Crawford advised Wysokowski to pull over any car with a group of drivers who appeared to be in their late teens or early twenties and suggested he look for vehicles with a County College of Morris parking permit or other "identifier," according to the suit.

Wysokowski said that he had consistently met standards for performance, including a 2001 evaluation saying he was “among the highest in traffic stops and summonses.”

But, Wysokowski said, after he refused to “engage in illegal profiling,” the department began retaliating against him in 2005.

Those actions include issuing him reprimands for not meeting the department’s “quota” for motor vehicle summonses and for leaving on the headlights of a police vehicle and draining the battery. He also said an officer came to his home to make sure he was sick on a sick day.

Wysokowski's suit, filed this week in Superior Court in Morristown, names Mendham Township and its police department as defendants. It seeks a promotion to sergeant; damages, lost wages, and compensation under the state’s “whistle-blower” act.

Crawford was unavailable for comment. Township Attorney John Mills said he has not seen the suit and “it would be inappropriate to comment.”

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