South Brunswick PD Chosen To Help With Use-of-Force Study

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — The South Brunswick police department has been selected by the state Attorney General to lead efforts to improve law enforcement data collection, particularly on the subject of "use of force" by police officers.

South Brunswick is one of only six police departments across the state selected for this program, a first-of-its-kind initiative. The news was announced Thursday morning. The other departments are Paterson, Linden, Bridgeton, Dover and Millville.

The statewide effort is meant to improve the accuracy of existing use-of-force data, and to draw correct conclusions about the state of law enforcement by aggregating and comparing use-of-force data from different law enforcement agencies.

This comes as Attorney General Gurbir Grewal is undertaking a massive overhaul of the police system in New Jersey, in which officers must report when they use force on the public, be it gunshots or compliance holds. Grewal's overhaul is called his “Excellence in Policing” initiative.

“Our department was one of six departments chosen to take on the initiative with the hope to create a better database of information that will allow officers statewide to better explain what we do and why we do it," said South Brunswick Police Chief Raymond Hayducka.

According to Hayducka, many initiatives started in South Brunswick have become best practices for police across the state.