Prosecutor's Office to Investigate Arrest of Black Princeton University Professor

Princeton, NJ -- Princeton Police have asked the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the arrest of a black Princeton University professor by a white Princeton Police officer, the Princeton Packet reports.

On Tuesday, Princeton Police documented the arrest of Princeton University Professor of African Studies Imani Perry’s arrest as part of its police blotter. Police she was “arrested on an active warrant issued by the Princeton Municipal Court.” She was released after posting $130 bail. She was arrested on Mercer Street at 9:07 a.m. Saturday morning.

Perry was allegedly going 67 mph in a 45 mph zone on Mercer Street when an officer pulled her over and subsequently arrested her because of two unpaid parking tickets, according to the report. She was charged with speeding and driving on a suspended license.

She posted about the arrest in a note on Facebook, saying she was treated “inappropriately and disproportionately.”

In her essay titled ‘My Encounter With Princeton Police and the Aftermath’ she also stated: “The fact of my blackness is not incidental to this matter.”

“Some critics have said that I should have expected what I received. But if it is the standard protocol in an affluent suburb to disallow a member of the community to make a call before an arrest (simply to inform someone of her arrest) and if it is the protocol to have male officers to pat down the bodies of women, and if it is the norm to handcuff someone to a table for failing to pay a parking ticket, we have a serious problem with policing in the society,” she wrote. “If it is not the case that this is the general practice, then I hope everyone reading will consider the possibility that the way I was treated had something to do with my race, and that we have a serious problem with policing in this society particularly with respect to Black people.”

On Monday night, Princeton Police Chief Nicholas Sutter said he reviewed the stop and said the officer did everything according to policy, including handcuffing the suspect as a safety precaution, according to the report. He said it’s department policy, and not up to the discretion of the officer.

Town Administrator Marc D. Dashield also reviewed the incident and said the police officer followed protocols, according to the report. However, the town intends to investigate whether a person should be arrested for a parking ticket at all.

“Many on our campus and around the country have expressed understandable concern about the arrest this past weekend of Professor Imani Perry, who is a respected scholar and beloved teacher at this University,” Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber said in a statement posted on the University’s website. “They have been shocked that such an arrest could result from unpaid parking tickets. They have also been distressed about specific aspects of the arrest, including the fact that a pat-down was performed by a male officer and that Professor Perry was handcuffed to a desk after her arrest.”

He said he shares their concerns and welcomes an investigation “not only of the treatment of Professor Perry, but of the underlying policies, practices, and protocols that were applied.

“We share with the town a commitment to fair treatment of all members of our community and of making the entire Princeton community as welcoming, respectful, and inclusive as possible. We will continue to look for opportunities to advance those goals on our own campus and beyond it.”