Highlands Police Officer Named In Attorney General's Report

HIGHLANDS, NJ — This week, for the first time ever, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office publicly released all the names of New Jersey police officers who were subject to major discipline between June 15, 2020 and December 31, 2020.

"Major discipline" is defined as police officers who were terminated, demoted, or suspended for more than five days.

A police officer in Highlands was on the list, as were several corrections officers in the Monmouth County Jail. No Middletown Twp. police officers were on the list. Read: 8 Monmouth Co. Corrections Officers Faced 'Major Discipline'

The Highlands Police officer is patrolman Troy Hartsgrove, who was suspended for 30 days in 2020 for violating the department's rules on social media use. It is unknown what he said.

This is the first time information like this has been made public. It was released in accordance with the Attorney General Law Enforcement Directive 2021-6, which former Attorney General Gurbir Grewal made two months ago, in light of this summer's New Jersey Supreme Court decision authorizing the public release of certain police disciplinary information.

The names of any police officer in New Jersey who received "major discipline" will now be made public in a yearly report. This includes county sheriff's officers, New Jersey State Police and correctional officers.

The law change is meant to be more transparent with the public, to let the public know how their tax dollars are being spent and also to improve police-community relations.

"We are releasing this information not to shame or embarrass individual officers, but to provide the same type of transparency and accountability in policing that New Jersey mandates in other essential professions," said Acting Attorney General Andrew Bruck on Tuesday. "The vast majority of New Jersey's law enforcement officers serve the public with honor and integrity, doing the right thing day-in and day-out for the communities they serve, so I take no joy in putting this information out. But we are doing this because it is an important and necessary step to build greater public trust while promoting professionalism in law enforcement."

You can find the entire 2020 disciplinary report here: njoag.gov/majordiscipline.

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