From ‘Street Cop’ to State Oversight- NJ Launches Centralized Police Training Institute

Starting January 1, 2026, a new directive from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office will overhaul professional development for police and prosecutors. The directive, issued on November 5, 2025, creates a statewide Professional Development Institute housed within the Office of Policing Strategy and Innovation.

The institute will work with county prosecutors, police chiefs, the New Jersey State Police, the Office of Law Enforcement Professional Standards, and outside organizations to develop and approve a standardized curriculum for officers across the state.

Courses will focus on areas consistently identified as in need of improvement, including best practices, implicit bias, community engagement, leadership, and officer safety. The course catalog will also include training that satisfies requirements under the CLEAR law, which officers must complete every five years. Failure to complete mandatory training may result in adverse licensing actions in addition to any discipline imposed by an officer’s employing agency.

This represents an important step in what has been a series of reform efforts by the current AG.

Earlier this year, NJ21st reported on a supplemental report from the Office of the State Comptroller. Both the original and supplemental reports detailed how 240 New Jersey law enforcement officers attended a six-day privately run conference in 2021 that promoted unconstitutional tactics, glorified violence, encouraged a “warrior” approach to policing, and disparaged the internal affairs process. The conference included over 100 discriminatory and harassing remarks. More than one million dollars in public funds were spent on this event, which involved at least 32 departments and agencies statewide. Twenty-two officers attended another conference by the same vendor in 2024.

In Union County alone, 16 municipalities used taxpayer dollars for training from this vendor, including Elizabeth, Plainfield, Rahway, Roselle, Berkeley Heights, New Providence, and Summit.

The need for additional training is evidenced.

In August, we published an in-depth examination on Use of Force by police at the national and state level. The article explored the need for reforms in the United States and New Jersey following the tragic death of 68-year-old Deborah Terrell, who was reportedly pepper sprayed, tased, and shot multiple times by police inside a senior residence. She was the fourth Black resident killed by police gunfire under the same mayor. The review highlighted that the United States has one of the highest per-capita rates of police-related fatalities in the developed world and pointed to Newark as a model for reform following years of federal oversight.

We also reported on the resistance Attorney General Platkin has faced from New Jersey police unions regarding reforms intended to increase transparency in cases involving disciplinary action and racial profiling.

The current Attorney General and State Comptroller have worked in an effective alignment (intentionally or not) to expose misconduct and force reforms in law-enforcement reporting and oversight. With a new administration arriving – there is real anxiety about whether that momentum will survive the transition.

Link to Directive

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