Deadly Discretion: What New Jersey’s Use-of-Force Reforms Still Leave Unanswered
Earlier this month the New Brunswick police were called to a senior apartment building after getting calls about a woman walking in the hallway with a knife. At the end of that encounter, 68-year-old Deborah Terrell was pepper sprayed, tased, and shot multiple times. The incident led to her death, Terrell is the fourth Black resident to be killed by police gunfire under the same mayor and the Attorney General is currently investigating what happened.
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Former State Assembly candidate Loretta Rivers has also been outspoken about the incident on social media.
The U.S. has no single, uniform standard for how police should respond to a knife incident. States and departments are left to figure it out on their own. National groups like the Police Executive Research Forum can offer guidance but it isn’t binding.
In 2024, police shot and killed ~ 1,400 people nationwide (about 4.1 deaths per million) – one of the highest rates in the developed world.
To it’s credit, New Jersey has been trying to fix this.
State Comptroller Kevin Walsh has been pulling back the curtain through his office’s Police Accountability Project. In 2023, his team uncovered police trainings teaching unconstitutional tactics, racial disparities in motor vehicle stops and an unofficial “family and friends courtesy card” system that got folks out of tickets.
Attorney General Platkin expanded training requirements, implemented a statewide use-of-force dashboard and put a single policy in place for all NJ police departments that emphasized verbal warnings and identified deadly force as a last resort with every incident logged in a statewide database.
NJ had about 14 fatal police shootings in 2024 (approx. 1.5 per million), which falls well below national. That number hasn’t moved a whole lot since the new policy began.
Newark, which has been under federal oversight for years, went all of 2020 without a single officer firing their weapon. This achievement came after years of being under a federal consent decree due to a 2014 DOJ investigation that found unconstitutional policing was a widespread issue in the city. Reforms in Newark included:
- Mandatory de-escalation training
- Early-warning systems to identify problematic behavior
- Civilian oversight (police review board)
- Community engagement as a core policing strategy
Supervisors were required to review all use-of-force incidents promptly, and officers were trained to slow encounters down.
These changes led to a police force that managed to perform their responsibilities without firing a shot.
And yes, this included armed confrontations.
And yes, the city saw a drop in its murder rate and overall crime.
Since 2020, Newark had two confirmed fatal police shootings—one in 2021 and another in 2023—with no confirmed cases in 2022 or 2024.
New Jersey police unions have pushed back against reform efforts.
In 2021, the New Jersey Attorney General mandated the public release of disciplinary records for serious misconduct. Despite pushback from police groups, the state Supreme Court upheld these directives (unanimously) and affirmed the public interest outweighed officers’ privacy in such cases.
In 2025, police unions went to court again – attempting to stop the Attorney General from investigating allegations of racial profiling. The went so far as to fight subpoenas and demanded the removal of outside attorneys. They also fought a plan to shift oversight of the State Police to the governor, with concerns that it would undermine their authority.
Other countries have found ways to keep incidents like this rare. In England and Wales, most officers don’t carry guns at all. Specially trained teams are taught to keep their distance, take cover, and only fire when there is no other option. They average two fatal police shootings a year (~0.03 per million). In New Zealand, officers are also unarmed by default, and their public manual spells out how to handle someone with a knife without resorting to gunfire. They average about one fatal shooting a year. France, the Netherlands, Australia, and Germany all have strict rules on deadly force and emphasize responses that are proportionate to threat, even when someone is armed with a knife. Their fatal-shooting rates are all under one per million.
Law enforcement advocates argue that these countries have different cultural contexts, including lower rates of gun ownership and different societal expectations regarding government authority. They often stress that these differences make a direct comparison to the U.S. challenging and that importing foreign policing models without considering the unique threats American officers face could have unintended consequences.
The Newark example, however, is a domestic case study in which a high-crime city implemented de-escalation strategies and reduced its police shootings.
The circumstances of Deborah Terrell’s death and the broader data on police use of force in the U.S. bring to light a central question in the debate over policing: How should the standard for a police officer’s use of deadly force be different from that of a private citizen’s?
Beyond a uniform policy on use of force, a critical piece of the puzzle is publicly available data.
Aggregate data on police shootings – or any use of force at the department level is not publicly available. Compiling these numbers is a straightforward task for townships and the state. If there were a greater commitment to community-based, accountable policing, this data would have been on a public state portal long ago.
The proven policies from countries with low fatal shooting rates and the domestic success in Newark present a contrast to the current situation. This raises questions about whether these models could be more widely adopted.
References/Further Reading:
New Jersey — “Deadly force shall only be used as an absolute last resort…”
https://www.nj.gov/oag/dcj/agguide/directives/ag-Directive-2022-4_Directive-Updating-Statewide-Vehicular-Pursuit-Policy-and-Use-of-Force-Policy.pdf
United Kingdom — Police Scotland (training manual: Edged Weapons)
“The principal advice to officers dealing with edged weapons is encapsulated in the mnemonic CUT; Create distance, Use cover, Transmit.”
https://www.shekubayohinquiry.scot/sites/default/files/2024-10/WIT-00115%20-%20Personal%20safety%20manual%20_%20module%2013%20edged%20weapons.pdf
New Zealand — Police Manual chapter (Offensive weapons, knives…)
“Police powers to stop vehicles, detain, search for and seize offensive weapons, knives and disabling substances are authorised under the Search and Surveillance Act 2012.”
https://www.police.govt.nz/sites/default/files/publications/offensive-weapons-knives-and-disabling-substances-150922.pdf
France — Code de la sécurité intérieure, art. L435-1
“…may use their weapons in cases of absolute necessity and in a strictly proportionate manner…”
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_lc/LEGIARTI000034107970
Netherlands — Ambtsinstructie (Article 10a)
“The officer must give an immediate warning before deliberately firing a firearm…”
https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0006589/2021-10-01/0
Australia — NSW Police
“You should use no more force than is reasonably necessary to exercise your policing functions.”
https://rlc.org.au/sites/default/files/2023-05/NSW%20Police%20Use%20of%20Force%20Manual.pdf
Australia — AFP
“AFP appointees must only use official firearms lawfully and in accordance with this Order.”
https://www.afp.gov.au/sites/default/files/PDF/IPS/18122019-CommissionersOrderonOperationalSafetyCO3.pdf
Germany — UZwG §4 (Grundsatz der Verhältnismäßigkeit)
“(1) Law enforcement officers must take measures that affect the individual and the public as little as possible.”
https://www.buzer.de/gesetz/5750/a78912.htm
Attorney General Use-of-Force Dashboard
https://www.njoag.gov/force
State Comptroller Kevin Walsh — 2024 Reports Dashboard
https://www.nj.gov/comptroller/reports/2024/approved/2024_reports.shtml
Newark police didn’t fire a single shot in 2020, and the crime rate fell
https://www.criminallegalnews.org/news/2021/sep/15/newark-police-didnt-discharge-single-firearm-2020-and-crime-rate-fell/
New Brunswick cop shoots and kills 68-year-old woman in senior building
https://newbrunswicktoday.com/2025/08/new-brunswick-cop-shoots-and-kills-68-year-old-woman-in-senior-building/
New Jersey Supreme Court affirms disclosure of police disciplinary records
https://whyy.org/articles/top-court-oks-n-j-directive-to-open-police-disciplinary-files/
State police unions sue State AG to block racial profiling investigation
https://newjerseymonitor.com/2025/07/09/state-police-unions-sue-new-jersey-attorney-general-to-block-racial-profiling-probe/
N.J. State Police unions sue to block state investigation
https://jerseybee.org/2025/07/28/n-j-state-police-unions-sue-to-block-state-investigation-into-racial-profiling/
Lawmakers propose removing State Police from AG oversight
https://newjerseymonitor.com/2025/06/26/lawmakers-look-to-take-state-police-from-attorney-generals-control/
How much do cops make in New Jersey? Median and average wages among top 10 nationwide
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2025/06/27/police-salaries-in-nj-rank-top-10-country-cops-pay-public-safety-spending-new-jersey/84383263007/
After Teachers, America’s Schools Spend More on Security Guards Than Any Other Role
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/after-teachers-americas-schools-spend-more-on-security-guards-than-any-other-role/2023/09
Presence of Armed School Officials and Fatal and Nonfatal Gunshot Injuries During Mass School Shootings, United States, 1980-2019
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2776515
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Statistics are rarely what they seem and often do not reflect reality . Take a walk in Newark or Washington for a clearer picture A little AI research :.Underreporting: Many local and state agencies do not submit data to the FBI, resulting in a significant portion of the U.S. population not being represented in national crime data.
Transition to NIBRS: The FBI’s mandatory transition to NIBRS caused a major data gap in 2021, with many agencies not becoming NIBRS-certified in time.
Misclassification: FBI data has been found to misclassify homicides, sometimes including justifiable or negligent killings, which inflates crime counts, while other reports suggest the UCR data may underestimate overall violent crime by as much as 50%.
Police and Victim Discretion
Police discretion: Officers have discretion in how they record incidents, leading to inconsistent reporting.
Victim discretion: Victims may choose not to report certain crimes for various reasons, leading to an undercount of offenses.
Data Manipulation
Strategic reporting: Local agencies may intentionally alter data to improve their image, build a case for increased funding, or demonstrate effectiveness.
Misleading statistical claims: Political figures and media outlets sometimes use inaccurate or incomplete data to promote specific policies or narratives, such as the idea that crime has decreased.
Media Influence
Sensationalism: The media can distort perceptions of crime through biased and selective reporting, perpetuating stereotypes rather than providing an accurate picture of crime trends.
Lack of verification: Media outlets may uncritically accept and promote misleading data, which further contributes to public misunderstanding of crime statistics.
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Hi Victoria- I grew up in a suburb right outside of Newark, worked there for many years as well. While your concerns on crime statistics are noted the data in Newark used the same baseline- so regardless of validity the same measuring stick is applied- in other words whatever he actual total is we can reasonably assume that the rate went down on some level of magnitude. With that said the main point is that Newark was able to reduce shootings. Circling back to the data, I actually support your position – I think police should keep and publish accurate data- including how often they use force- that’s one of the main points this article makes-john