Toms River Police Had No Major Disciplinary Actions: AG Report

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River Township Police Department had no officers subject to major disciplinary actions in the second half of 2020, according to a report from the state Attorney General's office.

On Tuesday, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office released the names and agencies of officers who were fired, demoted or suspended for more than five days from June 15, 2020 to the end of the calendar year. It was the first report since the state began requiring police departments to report information on serious disciplinary cases.

The Attorney General's office also published a list of departments with no major disciplinary actions during the last six months of 2020, and it included Toms River.

"Today, New Jersey takes an important step forward, joining the majority of U.S. states that disclose the identities of law enforcement officers found responsible for engaging in serious disciplinary violations," acting Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck said.

"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."

Bruck said the "vast majority" of the state's law enforcement officers serve the public with "honor and integrity," and he said he took no joy in releasing the information. But releasing the information was important and necessary to build greater public trust while "promoting professionalism in law enforcement," Bruck said.

In June, former Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal gave all New Jersey law enforcement agencies two months to publicly release disciplinary info. The directive came after the New Jersey Supreme Court authorized the public release of such info on a going-forward basis.

Read more: NJ Police Depts. Have 2 Months To Release Disciplinary Reports

The attorney general's office launched a beta version of its Use of Force Dashboard on April 6. To see the full list of names released by the Attorney General's Office, click here.

With reporting by Josh Bakan, Patch Staff

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