By Steve Strunsky
nj.com
NEWARK, N.J. — A federal judge said Thursday that she was likely to order an end to nine years of federal monitoring of Newark’s police force in two weeks after giving the public a chance to provide input on the matter.
U.S. District Court Judge Madeline Cox Arleo said during an afternoon hearing in Newark that she was satisfied that the department was in “substantial compliance” with reforms contained in a 2016 agreement between the city and the Justice Department.
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Under the court-brokered agreement, known as a consent decree, the city implemented reforms recommended by policing experts and tracked by a court-appointed monitor intended to reduce poor record keeping, police brutality, biased policing and other civil rights violations against the predominantly Black and brown population of the state’s largest city.
“I am inclined to terminate the consent decree and find substantial compliance,” Arleo told the three dozen lawyers, city police and civilian officials, civil rights advocates and others at the Martin Luther King Jr. Courthouse, a block from Newark City Hall.
“But I would be remiss if I did not give every single person in the community a full opportunity to weigh in,” she added. “So I will leave the record open for two weeks, and then I will issue my final order.”
Newark Public Safety Director Emanual Miranda welcomed the judge’s stated intention as “a great decision.”
The consent decree grew out of a damning 2014 Justice Department investigation concluding there had been widespread abuses by Newark’s police. The probe was in response to the filing of a large group of abuse complaints compiled by the ACLU of New Jersey.
The court-appointed monitor, former New Jersey State Attorney General Peter Harvey, assured the judge that the city had been in substantial compliance with reforms, although he noted that record-keeping and distinguishing between at-risk juveniles in need of intervention and hardened gang members were two areas where the department could use improvement.
His final report on the matter is posted on the NewarkPDMonitor.com website.
Harvey said after the hearing that he was “comfortable” with the judge’s conclusion, and confident the department’s reforms would stick, “because they have done the work.”
The government’s lead attorney, Jeffrey Murray, who has been involved in the case since its outset, likewise told the judge that he was satisfied that the department was in substantial compliance.
Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka was elected the same year the report was released after campaigning on a pledge to reform the department, then signed the decree two years later and embraced the reforms.
During a segment of the hearing when Arleo allowed members of the public to address her directly, Baraka and others said the “culture” and methods of policing had changed in Newark and assured her that the reforms and the improved behavior of officers would remain in effect after monitoring ended.
Baraka recalled beginning the process of arriving at the consent decree with then- U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Paul Fishman more than a decade ago, which he said, “has been really fruitful for us.”
Baraka and the city’s lawyers, Corporation Counsel Kenyatta Stewart and Christopher Kinum of New Providence , told the judge that the city had established an Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery to work with the police, which not only improved community relations but reduced violent crime in the city.
A revamped internal affairs unit, a civilian complaint review board convened last year, and a brand new Office of Constitutional Affairs would help ensure officers remained in compliance with reforms.
The judge also heard from representatives of the Newark -based Institute for Social Justice, which had helped set up community forums for updates on compliance.
A survey conducted by the institute found that Newark residents still had mixed feelings about policing, though its director, Ryan Haygood, made clear later that the institute supported lifting the consent decree.
Members of the public who addressed the judge also included People’s Organization for Progress Chairman Larry Hamm, an advocate for families whose loved ones had been killed or injured by police, including some while the department has been subject to the consent decree.
“Police brutality continues to exist,” said Hamm, who made a broader call for the state legislature to grant subpoena power to civilian police review boards.
But Arleo said the government could not continue to monitor Newark indefinitely, particularly in light of the compliance with the decree and the structural reforms and improvements that the monitor, the city, and the Justice Department agreed had been implemented.
“It’s not feasible, and it’s not right,” Arleo said, “for a court to go into a second decade providing oversight to the City of Newark.”
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