Atlantic City Police Department

Atlantic City Police Department
Abbreviation ACPD
Agency overview
Legal personality Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction* City of Atlantic City in the state of New Jersey, USA
Size 17 square miles (44 km2)
Population 39,558
General nature
Operational structure
Headquarters Atlantic City, New Jersey
Agency executive Henry White, Police Chief
Website
Atlantic City Police Department site
Footnotes
* Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction.

The Atlantic City Police Department is a municipal law enforcement agency that serves Atlantic City, New Jersey. The department is currently headed by Chief of Police Henry White who succeeded previous chief Ernest Jubilee.[1]

The department includes a Patrol Unit, Traffic Unit (made up of a Motorcycle Unit and an Accident Investigation Unit) and a K-9 Unit. Other divisions are Investigations, Vice, Support and Internal Affairs.[2]

History

In 1907 the Police Department was established in Atlantic City by ordinance number sixteen. Specifically, ordinance sixteen of 1907 states the following within section one:

"Be it ordained by City Council of Atlantic City, that there shall be in Atlantic City a Police Department, which shall consist of one Chief of Police, one Captain of Police, one Captain of Detectives, not more than ten Sergeants of Police, two Turnkeys, two Drivers of Patrol Wagons, one Matron, and such Patrolmen, Detectives, Life Guards, Surgeons and Special Officers as the Mayor shall deem advisable to appoint and for which appointments City Council by appropriation in any fiscal year may have provided. All the officers of said departments, except Matron, Life Guards, Detectives and officers who shall have been appointed for a term of service less than one year shall hold their respective offices during good behavior, or until by age or disease they become permanently incapacitated to discharge their duties, provided, however, that any officers of said Department may be removed for reasons and in the manner hereinafter provided."

As of today, the Police Department is established by authority of City Ordinance 52-1 of Atlantic City, entitled, "Creation of Police Division”.

There is hereby created in and for the City of Atlantic City, a Police Division (Division) within the Department of Public Safety. The Division shall consist of a Chief of Police (Chief) and shall include such members and officers as shall be deemed necessary by the appropriate authority. The appropriate authority shall, from time to time, determine the number of persons, including temporary officers and members in an emergency, to be appointed to these positions, together with their compensation. See N.J.S.A. 40A:14-118.

The duties of the Police Division are established by authority of the City Ordinance 52-2 of Atlantic City, entitled, "Duties of Police Division."

The Division shall preserve the public peace; protect life and property; prevent crime; detect, arrest and prosecute offenders of the laws of the State of New Jersey and the ordinances of the City of Atlantic City; direct and control vehicular and pedestrian traffic; provide attendance and protection during emergencies; suppress riots, mobs and insurrections; disperse unlawful or dangerous assemblies; preserve order at all elections, public meetings and assemblages; provide appearances in court; cooperate with other law enforcement agencies; and provide training for the efficiency of its members and officers. See N.J.S.A. 40A:14-152.

The Police Department of the City of Atlantic City is established pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40A:14-118 and shall after this be called the “Atlantic City Police Department."

In 1855, William S. Cazier was the first “constable of the surf” and he patrolled the city’s beaches.

The first female as a member of a police force for all of New Jersey was Margaret Creswell. She began her Atlantic City police officer career in 1924.

The Atlantic City Police Department Police Chiefs has an extensive history. The first police chief was Barton Gaskill, 1870; followed by: John R Lake, 1872; Simon L. Wescoat, 1874; John Hamon, 1876; Simon L. Wescoat, 1877; Joseph T. Note, 1880; Charles R. Lacy, 1881; George B. Zane, 1882; James Robinson, 1883; Harry C. Eldridge, 1887; George W. France, 1887; Harry C. Eldridge, 1890; Charles W. Maxwell, 1906; Malcolm B. Woodruff, 1906; Robert C. Miller, 1916; Patrick J. Doran, 1924; James A. McMenamin, 1934; Earl W. Butcher, special deputy chief, 1941; Arthur F. Higbee, 1943; Samuel H. G. Weakley, 1943; Harry Saunders, 1944; Earl W. Butcher, Acting Police Chief, 1951; Mario Floriani, Acting Police Chief 1964, his career ended as chief in 1969 when he was appointed in 1972 to City Commission. Mario Floriani was also Atlantic County Sheriff; William Cade, 1969, helped institute the K9 Corps; William tenBrink, 1974 to 1978, was the city's chief of police when Atlantic City’s first casino (Resorts) opened, but died later that year at age 40. Joseph Allmond, was Atlantic City's first black police chief. Almond retired in 1984; Joseph Pasquale, 1984 to 1990; Robert McDuffie, April 1, 1990 to December 6, 1990; Nicholas Rifice, 1990 to 1996; James DiNoto, Acting Police Chief from 1996 to 1998; Benn Polk, 1998 to 2000; Arthur Snellbaker, 2000-2006; John Mooney, April 10, 2006 to May 27, 2010; Ernest C. Jubilee II, May 27, 2010 to Nov 2013; Henry White December 16, 2013 current Police Chief.


Equipment

In mid-2014, the department began using 20 body cameras.[3]

Slain officers

Nine officers from this department have been killed in the line of duty.

Name Date Notes
Peter Brewer 13 April 1890 Assault
Earl C. Wisler 1 September 1929 Assault
Clayton G. Graham 23 April 1962 Gunshot
Daniel DuRoss 24 September 1963 Vehicular assault
Peter John "Sonny" Burke 1 October 1970 Gunshot
Peter Francis Egnor 14 October 1981 Gunshot
Kenneth Louis Brown 10 March 2004 Heart Attack
Thomas J. McMeekin, Jr. 4 March 2005 Struck by a vehicle
Kevin B. Wilkins 18 February 2010 Accidental gunshot

[4]

Future Goals and Objectives

One of the major areas of concerns that this Department, as well as many others, face is the tough economic times. The idea is to be able to provide the same or better level of services to the citizens with fewer resources available.

Recently the department was granted a 3.5 million dollar technology grant which may be used for many of the following new technology upgrades:

One area that we can do this is by implementing E‐Ticketing. This system it will allow officers on patrol to quickly and efficiently produce electronic motor vehicle summonses from their patrol vehicles in a fraction of the time hand written summonses would take them to complete. The time saved will allow the officers more time to be on patrol or to enforce more motor vehicle laws. This also saves the costs of printing summons books as well as reducing the paper use. We had a testing and evaluation of one patrol car and it was successful. We hope to implement this in all patrol cars in 2013.

We would like to implement in car video systems in our patrol cars. This would allow officers the opportunity of valuable evidence for use in court. The video system would also allow us the ability to evaluate our personnel and policies in order to achieve best practices and conformity throughout the Department. Our goal is to outfit at least some of our patrol cars with the in car video systems in 2013.

We are also exploring the use of remote cameras around the town to monitor activity and increase the solvability of crime in our community. The extra‐added eyes would assist us in continuing to maintain this success. This would be an extra tool for officers who are at times working alone on patrol.

As part of the installed vehicle and remote cameras, license plate readers would enable us to locate potential victim and suspect property in an effective manner both past and present.

A new computer aided dispatch and records management system that will include the ability to meet Accreditation standards, manage evidence and department equipment more effectively will be purchased.

As part of the new computer aided dispatch auto vehicle locators in our patrol cars would allow for the closest resources to be dispatched safely and effectively.

Other technology being purchased will be Shotspotter, which is an audio gunshot detection system that can be tied to video cameras. It immediately alerts the police department when a shot is fired and activates cameras in the area to turn toward the sound and record.

On Target Performance Systems, Administrative Investigative Management was purchased and use should begin soon. The software will enable the department to better manage Internal Affairs investigations, assist with Performance Evaluations, Field Training & Evaluation Program, Early Warning System and annual reports.

Continued CALEA accreditation, we will continue to assess and change our Policies and Procedures to conform to best practices promulgated by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. [5]

Misconduct

On 23 November 2009, two Atlantic City policemen stopped two men on the street and detained them. The two officers reportedly made racial insults directed toward the men. An internal affairs investigation found the officers acted correctly. In October 2011, the two officers agreed to pay $360,000 to the men for violating their civil rights. Local newspapers did not name the two officers.[6]

In June 2013, David Connor Castellani alleged police brutality after a verbal confrontation characterized in court as "Mouthing Off" to several police officers became an alleged act of "Street Justice" the officers were found to have acted correctly, as technically under the letter of the law, if Castellani had even dropped to the ground and rolled up in a fetal position that could have been considered resisting arrest, and all the actions and the force utilized by the officers would have still been appropriate until Castellani complied with their orders to submit to being taken into custody.[7][8]

In April 2015 calling for an end to "incessant discovery disputes" over Atlantic City Police Department internal affairs files, a federal judge in Camden ordered the city to turn over every internal affairs file it generated from 2003 to 2014—roughly 2,000 files. U.S. Magistrate Judge Joel Schneider of the District of New Jersey ordered the across-the-board production of files,[9] although Atlantic City police supervisors maintained that they followed the New Jersey Attorney General's Guidelines for Internal Affairs investigations, a comparison of their testimony to those guidelines revealed a flawed and shallow internal affairs process tailored to lead to exonerations of officers engaged in misconduct and raised serious questions about their credibility. Atlantic City's police department appeared to have had a flawed and shallow Internal Affairs process prior to Chief Henry White's reforms to the department, lacking objectivity and basic procedures which should have notified supervisors of the possibility that officers may be violating citizen's civil rights. The supervisors in Atlantic City were aware of the flaws and did nothing to correct them, sending the message to the members of their department that they would not be disciplined no matter how egregious the violation. Their confidence that they could assault citizens without fear of disciplinary action is best evidenced in the way that they assaulted and treated numerous individuals while fully aware that they were being recorded by casino surveillance cameras, and that even with such recorded evidence Internal Affairs would review the footage and exonerate them. Atlantic City's Internal Affairs process was characterized as the exact "facade to cover the violent behavioral pattens of police officers under investigation, to protect them from disciplinary action, and thereby perpetuate the City's custom of acquiescing in the excessive use of force by its police, the prior Chief testified that Internal Affairs: (1) reviews all internal complaints made against its officers, regardless of outcome, for evidence of pattern of misconduct; and (2) are required to review target officer's prior and subsequent Internal Affairs complaints to see if an officer has a pattern of misconduct. the prior Internal Affairs Captain specifically contradicted the Chief, testifying that the department did not have a "regular practice" to review an officer's prior and subsequent complaints to determine if a pattern of misconduct might exist, and did not do so on "a regular basis, this being in direct conflict with the New Jersey Attorney General's Guidelines for Internal Affairs Policy and Procedure, further testimony by the Chief And Captain revealed that the department's Internal Affairs Unit did not interview officers under investigation, resulting (not surprisingly) in either "Exonerated" or "Not Sustained" findings. Such shallow and inadequate investigations into police misconduct is direct evidence of deliberate indifference on the part of Atlantic City and it's police department's staff and would most likely be sufficient to impose municipal liability on them. The Chief and Captain testified that officers were not routinely interviewed by Internal Affairs, and that the interview requirement in the Attorney General's Guidelines was "a suggestion" based on the "operative word "should", The Guidelines are clear that Internal Affairs should interview the officers under investigation as well as the Complainants and the Chief testified that the Guidelines provision that "Investigators should interview the complainant, all witnesses and the subject officer" was "a suggestion" and not "a requirement". The Internal Affairs Captain also disagreed with the provision, characterizing it as a "guideline" rather than a "requirement" based on the operative word "should." the Internal Affairs Captain considered the Guideline provision to be "an opinion." however the captain contradicted himself in other testimony that according to Atlantic City Police Internal guidelines "all efforts must be made to interview a complainant in person." The Guidelines are clear that Internal Affairs should review prior and subsequent Internal Affairs reports every time a complaint is brought against an officer as part of an Early Warning System, there was in fact a reasonable expectation that the word "should" clearly indicated an obligation or duty or requirement.[10]

In July 2015 Atlantic City Police Sergeant Kiyia Harris was arrested by FBI Agents and charged with lying to federal authorities in reference to her relationship and dealings with a convicted drug dealer boyfriend .[11]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/atlantic-city-s-new-police-chief-henry-white-vows-reforms/article_76063374-666d-11e3-9f19-001a4bcf887a.html
  2. ↑ Atlantic City Police web site accessed 3 October 2013
  3. ↑ Atlantic City police get body cameras, by the Associated Press, 21 August 2014
  4. ↑ Officer Down Memorial Page, accessed 3 October 2013
  5. ↑ NJSACOP Assessor Briefing Booklet
  6. ↑ Two Atlantic City police officers found guilty of civil rights violations against two men, settlement amount reduced, by Lynda Cohen, 24 October 2014, Press of Atlantic City website
  7. ↑ http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/gang-atlantic-city-officers-brutally-beat-man-release-an-attack-dog-to-gnaw-on-his-neck/
  8. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-12-12. Retrieved 2014-09-23.
  9. ↑ http://www.njlawjournal.com/id=1202723386541/Atlantic-City-Must-Hand-Over-2000-Internal-Affairs-Files#ixzz3kXqwUyyl
  10. ↑ UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT COURT OF NEW JERSEY CAMDEN Forero vs. Atlantic City, Civil Action No.:11-01630 (JHR-AMD)
  11. ↑ http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Sergeant-Police-Officer-Drug-Dealer-Atlantic-City-FBI-Kiyia-Harris-314766751.html
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