NJ police taught ‘unconstitutional tactics’ by racist, misogynist trainers, comptroller report says

A report released Wednesday by the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller highlights a slew of unsettling behaviors that occurred during a private police training seminar in October 2021.

Over the course of the six-day conference held in Atlantic City, instructors taught “unconstitutional policing tactics” that glorified violence, while making countless comments that denigrated minorities and women, according to the report.

“We found so many examples of so many instructors promoting views and tactics that were wildly inappropriate, offensive, discriminatory, harassing and, in some cases, likely illegal,” New Jersey Comptroller Kevin Walsh said in a statement. “The fact that the training undermined nearly a decade of police reforms — and New Jersey dollars paid for it — is outrageous.”

The event was conducted by Street Cop Training — an independent New Jersey-based law enforcement training firm — and was attended by nearly 1,000 police officers from across the country. Those included about 240 from New Jersey, who were largely paid to attend using taxpayer money. The OSC confirmed that at least $75,000 in public state funds was directly spent on attendance at the conference.

After scrutinizing hours of video footage, reviewing internal documents and conducting witness interviews, the comptroller’s office found that the training likely violated numerous state laws and policies.

Some speakers allegedly advocated for pulling drivers over for no reason or illegally prolonging stops, both of which could violate people’s civil rights and be unconstitutional under New Jersey and federal laws.

Other instructors encouraged a “warrior” mentality to policing and referred to civilians as “the pieces of s–t of society.”

One speaker talked about “loving violence” and “drinking out of the skulls of our enemies,” while another allegedly shared a meme of an ape following a story of pulling over a 75-year-old Black man.

During a presentation seemingly designed to be about combatting human trafficking, Dennis Benigno, the head of Street Cop, even spoke at one point of wanting to be surrounded by women who “are not as wealthy and need to do things to make money.”

In total, more than 100 discriminatory and harassing remarks were counted in the investigation, with “repeated references to speakers’ genitalia, lewd gestures, and demeaning quips about women and minorities.”

Comptroller Walsh called for “regulation over private companies operating in this sphere” moving forward, to ensure quality police training.

Benigno, a former New Jersey police officer, defended his company against the accusations.

“There is not one single instance in the OSC Report where we have advocated any practice that is inconsistent with quality policing,” he said in a statement. “Isolated excerpts taken out of context from a week-long training are not reflections of the overall quality of the education that Street Cop provides.”

_____