A1388

An Act concerning law enforcement officers, and supplementing Title 2C of the New Jersey Statutes and Title 52 of the Revised Statutes.

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. a. The Attorney General shall review the Statewide use of force policy applicable to law enforcement officers every even numbered year, or in such shorter time frame as the Attorney General may deem appropriate, and revise it as need may require.

Any revision of the Statewide use of force policy shall be in furtherance of at least the following core principles:

(1) respecting the sanctity of human life and serving the community;

(2) prioritizing other reasonable measures, including de-escalation, that must be attempted before resorting to the use of force;

(3) promoting the use of only objectively reasonable, necessary and proportional force, including the use of deadly force only as a last resort; and

(4) articulating other duties attendant to the use of force, such as a law enforcement officer’s duty to intervene, to render medical assistance, and to report and review uses of force.

b. The Attorney General shall transmit any revisions of the Statewide use of force policy to the chief or director of every county and municipal law enforcement department, every municipal and county prosecutor, and the Superintendent of State Police.

c. The Attorney General, in reviewing the Statewide use of force policy pursuant to subsection a. of this section, shall hold three public hearings, one hearing in each of the northern, central, and southern regions of the State, at such times as the Attorney General shall determine, in order to receive feedback from the community related to such policy. Such public hearings shall include local law enforcement and community members and organizations.

2. a. The Attorney General shall establish and maintain a procedure by which all incidents involving the use of force by a law enforcement officer are reported to the Department of Law and Public Safety, and shall compile such information for presentation on the Department’s internet website, which shall be accessible to the public and shall be regularly updated in accordance with procedures established by the Attorney General.

b. The information compiled pursuant to subsection a. of this section shall made available for public inspection pursuant to P.L.1963, c.73 (C.47:1A-1 et seq.), commonly known as the Open Public Records Act.

3. a. The Attorney General shall issue and revise as needed guidelines and procedures applicable to law enforcement encounters involving a barricaded individual. Any revision to such guidelines and procedures shall be in furtherance of the components and principles enumerated in subsection b. of this section.

b. These guidelines and procedures shall address, at a minimum, the following components and principles:

(1) Proper identification of situations involving a barricaded individual, including differentiating between situations involving a barricaded individual experiencing a mental health crisis that poses a health, safety or welfare risk to the individual or others, and those situations involving a barricaded individual or hostage situation under circumstances that do not involve a mental health crisis. Appropriate protocols shall be established for dealing with those situations based on their differing nature, including whether the use of stun guns, as that term is defined in N.J.S.2C:39-1, may be considered as a non-lethal option and whether officers should prioritize waiting for conflict resolution through negotiating and communication by a mental health professional rather than engaging the barricaded individual;

(2) Initial responding law enforcement officers’ roles and responsibilities, including ensuring that responding officers consider the barricaded individual’s primary language and, if communication is difficult, take reasonable steps to establish communication via the person’s primary language, including but not limited to, utilizing bilingual officers, interpreters, telephonic interpretation or translation services, or community crisis response teams, if feasible and appropriate;

(3) Law enforcement de-escalation responses to barricaded individual and hostage situations, and interaction with individuals in behavioral and mental health crises, including crisis intervention, crisis negotiation, resolution techniques, and resolution tactics;

(4) Roles and responsibilities of supervisors, including establishing that it is the responsibility of the incident commander, absent exigent circumstances, to make the decision to employ resolution tactics or to enter a structure or area occupied by a barricaded individual, which decision shall be made after giving due consideration to all available alternative strategies and information, including that provided by the tactical commander, crisis negotiation team leader, and available mental health professionals;

(5) Proper coordination of activities between incident command systems and tactical teams, and providing that, when feasible, a law enforcement officer trained in crisis intervention shall respond to incidents involving barricaded individuals and assist in de-escalating the situation and recommending appropriate resources;

(6) Appropriate role and use of mental health professionals, including providing that tactical teams or crisis negotiation teams shall identify qualified and experienced mental health professionals who shall respond to any incidents involving a barricaded individual or hostage situation. These mental health professionals may be individual providers or organizations and, where feasible, shall be present for law enforcement encounters with barricaded individuals.

4. The Police Training Commission shall develop and include barricaded individual training for law enforcement officers in all of its basic training courses. This mandatory training shall include proper identification of barricaded individuals, responses to barricaded individual and hostage situations, and interacting with individuals in behavioral and mental health crises.

5. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

This bill requires the Attorney General (AG) to review and, if necessary, revise its use-of-force policy at least every even-numbered year or in such shorter time frame as needed.

The bill requires that any revision to the Statewide use-of-force policy be in furtherance of the following core principles:

(1) respecting the sanctity of human life and serving the community;

(2) prioritizing other reasonable measures, including de-escalation, that must be attempted before resorting to the use of force;

(3) promoting the use of only objectively reasonable, necessary, and proportional force, including the use of deadly force only as a last resort; and

(4) articulating other duties attendant to the use of force, such as a law enforcement officer’s duty to intervene, to render medical assistance, and to report and review uses of force.

The bill requires the policy to be transmitted to the chief or director of every municipal and county police department, every municipal and county prosecutor, and the Superintendent of State Police.

The bill requires the AG, upon review of the policy as required by the bill, to hold three public hearings in order to receive feedback from the community.

Moreover, the bill requires the AG to establish and maintain a procedure for reporting incidents involving use-of-force to the Department of Law and Public Safety, and to compile such information in a publicly accessible website. Use-of-force incident information will be subject to the Open Public Records Act.

Finally, the bill requires the AG to issue and revise as needed guidelines and procedures applicable to law enforcement encounters involving a barricaded individual. Further, the Police Training Commission is required to develop and include barricaded individual training for law enforcement officers. The bill requires that any revisions to the guidelines are in furtherance of the following components and principles:

(1) situations involving barricaded individuals should be differentiated based on whether they involve a mental health crisis, with appropriate protocols like negotiation and non-lethal options tailored to the situation;

(2) initial responding officers are required to account for a barricaded individual’s primary language;

(3) law enforcement responses should incorporate crisis intervention, negotiation, and resolution techniques;

(4) supervisors and incident commanders are responsible for determining resolution tactics, factoring in input from tactical teams, negotiators, and mental health professionals;

(5) proper coordination between incident command systems and tactical teams, with crisis intervention officers responding to deescalate barricaded individual situations; and

(6) the appropriate role and use of mental health professionals, when available.