BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Bloomfield has asked two police organizations to conduct a study of its own police practices for motor-vehicle stops.
According to Mayor Michael Venezia, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and the National Coalition of Latino Officers, will conduct the study.
The decision is a result of a report issued last month by Seton Hall Law School students which received wide news coverage.
The report, based on the courtroom appearance of driving violators and the surnames of ticketed violators, concluded the Bloomfield Police Department engaged in “racial profiling” when stopping drivers. Its findings were criticized by Mayor Michael Venezia and BPD Director Sam DeMaio as inaccurate. DeMaio said most traffic tickets were given out in the southern portion of the township because that is where a high percentage of Bloomfield crime is reported. Consequently, the area is more heavily patrolled by the police than any other township area. Seton Hall Law School professor Mark Denbeaux, who headed the report, in an interview acknowledged that the law students conducting the survey were unaware that the southern end of Bloomfield had more police patrols, and that a higher number of police would produce a higher number of violations.
Venezia held a public meeting Tuesday, May 3, to discuss the report.
“We’re taking some of the findings very seriously,” he said in a telephone interview earlier this week.
One finding by the report was the revenue stream generated by the number of tickets given out. Venezia said. In 2015, 17,763 tickets were given, a 464 percent increase over 2014 when 3,150 were given out. During the same time period, the township experienced a 28 percent decrease in crime, according to BPD statistics.
“Overall, the Seton Hall report was flawed,” Venezia said. “They showed the data the way they wanted.”
A presentation at the meeting last week was a map of Bloomfield divided into police zones. There were seven of these zones. The zone with the highest number of criminal complaints was No. 2. This is at the most southerly area of Bloomfield, triangular in shape and wedged between East Orange and Newark. Out of a total of 907 townshipwide complaints in 2015, 242 were received from this zone.
Venezia said Sen. Ron Rice, D-Essex, who attended the meeting, said the Seton Hall study was an observation and not a report.
“The township is planning a report,” Venezia said.
He anticipates the new study will begin in several weeks. Venezia and DeMaio have met with both organizations.
“The police director reached out to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and I reached out to the NCOL,” the mayor said.
Venezia said as far as he is concerned, the Seton Hall report is out of the picture. Denbeaux, who was expected to attend, declined the invitation after not receiving additional data from the BPD.
“We’ve also been contacted by CUNY/John Jay,” Venezia said in reference to another traffic study. “So we do have our options beside Seton Hall.”
DeMaio, in an email, said any new study would be conducted in conjunction with police department data to ensure that it is used accurately and with any racial data the BPD captures captured electronically.
“Policies and procedures of the department will also be reviewed to ensure that we are using all best practices that may be utilized in other departments throughout the country,” he said.
Venezia said the meeting last week was about open dialogue and not about proving the falsity of the Seton Hall report.
“People came with real situations,” he said of the audience members who spoke. “They thought they were being racially profiled.”
Venezia plans to have another public forum on the same issue of alleged police profiling. He said this would occur during the second week of June.
“We’ll see where the new studies are at that point,” he said. “Hopefully, by September or October, we’ll see what the findings are.”
He said the new study would outline what, if anything, the BPD is doing wrong.
The township will pay for the study although Venezia said he did not know the cost. He did not expect it to be considerable. Rice would also be asked if he could obtain Office of the Attorney General funding.
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