NJ Police Body Camera Law Sees Scorn, Mistrust In Newark

NEWARK, NJ — Abdul Malik Muhammad is still mourning the loss of his stepson, Carl Dorsey, who was killed in a police shooting in Newark last year. And when he learned that Gov. Phil Murphy signed a controversial police body camera law last week, it conjured two feelings in his heart.

“This reeks of untrustworthiness and guilt,” the bereaved father said.

Muhammad is one of a rising tide of activists and Newark residents who are blasting a new law that will allow police officers to watch body-worn camera footage of most incidents before writing their report.

The lawmakers behind the new legislation have argued that it’s necessary to give police the tools they need to write accurate reports. Lawmakers have pointed out that officers will still be required to write their initial summary from memory in some cases, including when police action results in a death, or when an excessive use of force takes place.

Officers may have to respond to several emergency calls in a single shift, and it’s often impossible to complete all their reports in a single day, the bill’s sponsors in the Assembly wrote last summer.

“This legislation gives law enforcement officers the option to use the video to help with filing reports for everyday calls, such as when they are simply helping people connect to different resources,” the lawmakers wrote.

Law enforcement unions such as the New Jersey State Policemen's Benevolent Association have also supported the new bodycam rules, echoing the above concerns.

But according to some groups, such as the ACLU-NJ, S3939/A5864 will undermine civil rights and “give undue power to police to explain away misconduct.”

“The problem with allowing officers to view body camera footage before they write reports is that it becomes impossible to later separate what an officer remembers from what they learned by watching the tape,” said Tess Borden, staff attorney for the ACLU-NJ.

Another big worry among advocates? A police officer may leave out key details from their report if he or she knows they’re not captured on video, they say.

Despite strong opposition from grassroots activists and community partners, the bill was “fast-tracked at the urging of police lobbyists,” the ACLU-NJ charged.

The bill was conditionally vetoed by Gov. Murphy on its first go-round. An amended version faced just one “no” vote in the Senate, which came from Sen. Nia Gill (District 34). It was signed into law last week. Read More: NJ Governor Signs Flurry Of New Laws On Inauguration Day

NEW JERSEY’S LATEST BODY CAMERA LAW: ‘A STEP BACKWARDS’

The new law has seen heavy criticism in New Jersey’s largest city, where members of Newark Communities for Accountable Policing (NCAP) praised Gill for taking a stand, but took other legislators to task, including the governor.

“The Nia Gills of the land should be the rule on matters like this, not the exception to the rule,” said Zayid Muhammad, a spokesperson with the NCAP.

Muhammad said the state Legislature passed up chances to pass “far more meaningful” police reform bills, including the Civilian Complaint Review Board Bill (A4656) and the Police Transparency Bill (S2656).

“Although there was clear, broad-based support for these bills, including a dramatic 67-mile march from Montclair to Trenton in October, none of these bills were ever even considered for a vote,” Muhammad said.

“This is not Trump,” Muhammad added. “This is not angry, white male Republicans. This is Murphy and a legislature full of Democrats who [have done] nothing of genuine substance on police reform but this offensive deed.”

“The police organizations put the full court press on the Legislature, and Democratic leadership caved,” agreed Lawrence Hamm, a co-founder of the People’s Organization for Progress and a driving force behind last autumn’s March for Justice.

• See related article: NJ Activists March 67 Miles To Demand Police Reform

Yannick Wood, a member of the Newark-based NJ Institute for Social Justice, accused state lawmakers of refusing to pass any meaningful police accountability bills since the murder of George Floyd.

“This is a dishonor to Mr. Floyd and all the others who have lost their lives to police violence in America and New Jersey,” Wood said.

Matt Dragon, co-chair of the Essex County chapter of Our Revolution, said the new law transforms body cameras into devices that protect the police from their own bad actions.

“One has to look no further than the initial police report that George Floyd had a medical issue and died to understand why this bill is flawed, and with likely fatal consequences,” Dragon said.

The new law has also gotten heavy criticism from activists outside of Newark.

Zellie Imani of Black Lives Matter Paterson said the new law is coming on the heels of a controversial police-involved shooting in that city, which ended with the death of 25-year-old Thelonious McKnight on Dec. 30.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick-based activist Cuqui Rivera of the Latino Action Network said the law is “a step backwards” from what Gov. Murphy initially put forward when he first mandated body cameras in 2020.

“We had a much better bill that was gutted by this change,” Rivera said. “This [new law] makes that bill not worth the paper it is written on.”

• See related article: Gov. Murphy Signs Body Camera Mandates For All NJ Police Into Law

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