WEST ORANGE, NJ — In a letter to West Orange Township Council President Michelle Casalino, according to a June 18 press release from the township, Mayor Robert Parisi urged all council colleagues to support his efforts toward enacting legislation on the following points: an ordinance banning tear gas, rubber bullets and requiring use of body cameras; a resolution affirming the township’s commitment that the WOPD continue to fully comply with all policies set forth in the “8 Can’t Wait” campaign; necessary actions taken to repeal the current loitering ordinance; and a resolution urging the state of New Jersey to permit civil service communities to hire from the alternate route program.
The “8 Can’t Wait” campaign encourages governments and police departments across the nation to adopt the following eight policies: ban choke holds and strangle holds; require de-escalation; require warning before shooting; require police to exhaust all possible alternatives before shooting; require officers to intervene and stop excessive force used by other officers and report these incidents immediately to a supervisor; ban shooting at moving vehicles; establish a force continuum that restricts the most severe types of force to the most extreme situations and creates clear policy restrictions on the use of each police weapon and tactic; and require comprehensive reporting.
“We are at a critical and long overdue point in the township and throughout our country to end systemic and societal racism,” Parisi wrote in the letter. “To do this, all aspects of the community must come together towards achieving that final goal. In light of national events we must closely examine aspects of policies and laws that may have unintentionally been short-sighted in working towards a harmonious community for all citizens.”
“Directives of the ‘8 Can’t Wait’ campaign have long been policies adopted by our police department,” Police Chief James Abbott said in the press release. “As long as I have been involved in law enforcement for nearly 40 years within the township we have never even had the items proposed in the ban available for use. Outlawing them in essence would be an official endorsement of practices already in place.”
According to the township, the loitering ordinance currently on the books has long been outdated and never enforced. Its official removal as law simply brings another long-standing practice of community policing up to date.
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