Racist, Sexist Police Training Cost NJ Taxpayers $1M, New Report Says
NEW JERSEY — Hundreds of police departments in New Jersey have spent more than $1 million of taxpayer funds with a company that hosted a demeaning and profanity-laden training conference for officers – and which has since been blacklisted in the state, officials announced this week.
In December 2023, the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) released a scathing report about conference held two years earlier by Street Cop Training, a private company with a corporate headquarters in East Windsor.
During the conference – held in Atlantic City – speakers taught potentially “unconstitutional” policing tactics, glorified violence and insulted women and people of color, the comptroller’s office previously reported, sharing video footage of the training sessions.
“I love violence … I love fighting … I love shooting,” one speaker can be seen telling his audience, adding that “it wasn’t that long ago that we were drinking out of the skulls of our enemies.”
“I watched this car come off the highway and I eye-f***** the s*** out the female driver,” another instructor said. “She doesn’t want to f*** me back, though – it’s gonna be the sneaky peek.”
One trainer can be seen mimicking a Middle Eastern accent as he explains that “Everything is a business – even how we get married.” Another used an offensive meme of a monkey after describing a motor vehicle stop of a “75-year-old Black man coming out of Trenton.”
Nearly 1,000 police officers attended the conference, including 240 from New Jersey.
See Related: Sexism, Racism, Genital Jokes: NJ Cops Attended Controversial Training, OSC Says
Street Cop Training issued an apology for any “inappropriate or offensive language” used at the workshops. However, the company said the comptroller’s office is wrong about several of its claims, including the assertion that the training may have been unconstitutional.
“While we were painted as the bad guys, we are in fact the good guys, creating better, more well-trained police officers for a country that expects the best from their men and women in blue – and everybody in this profession knows that,” Street Cop Training founder Dennis Benigno insisted.
COMPTROLLER UPDATE
On Thursday, the OSC released an update to its initial report (read it here).
According to the comptroller’s office, far more police departments have paid for sessions with Street Cop Training than previously known – in New Jersey and other states across the nation.
In total, 377 New Jersey police departments and law enforcement agencies paid more than $1 million for private police training hosted by the company between Jan. 1, 2019 and March 13, 2023.
Nationwide, 2,721 government entities from 49 states, including New Jersey, have paid for Street Cop Training courses and events, the OSC found.
See the list for New Jersey here, and see the national list here.
After the OSC’s initial report was published, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General rolled out a retraining program for police officers who attended the 2021 workshops in Atlantic City.
Attorney General Matt Platkin required officers to “self-report” their attendance or involvement with the conference, adding that those who failed to do so – or failed to attend the retraining – could be subject to discipline.
Discussing this response in an interview, the attorney general emphasized that it had now been made “very clear to all 38,000 sworn officers and their leadership that no one should be attending Street Cop Training in the state of New Jersey.”
Despite this stern warning, at least 20 New Jersey officers apparently disregarded the instructions and registered for the 2024 Street Cop Conference in Florida, the comptroller’s office said.
“Our original report exposed the dangerous gap in regulation and oversight of private, post-academy police training in New Jersey,” acting state comptroller Kevin Walsh said.
“This supplemental report shows the problem is bigger than we previously reported – and it has not gone away,” Walsh said.
Some findings in the updated report include:
REPEAT CUSTOMERS – “At least 32 New Jersey police departments and agencies were ‘repeat customers,’ spending funds on Street Cop Training even after officers attended the 2021 conference.” Those police departments included Atlantic City, Brick Township, Carlstadt, Cherry Hill, East Rutherford, Egg Harbor, Elmwood Park, Florham Park, Hackensack, Hamilton Township, Harvey Cedars Borough, Hopatcong, Howell, Lincoln Park, Millville, Monmouth Beach Borough, Montvale, Moorestown, Morris Township, New Milford, Newark, Old Bridge, Pennsauken, Plainsboro, Pleasantville, Perth Amboy, Robbinsville, Spring Lake Heights, Vineland, West Deptford, West Windsor and Wharton.
HIDING THEIR PARTICIPATION -“Internal company records indicated that Street Cop was willing to help officers hide their attendance at courses/events or their involvement as instructors. In one instance, an active New Jersey State Police trooper requested to continue to sell his on-demand courses without it being advertised on the company website to “avoid any scrutiny” from New Jersey.”
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