CJ Griffin Quoted in Articles Regarding Disclosure of Police Discipline and NJ OPRA Blog Post Noting Discrepancies in Jersey City Reports

CJ Griffin, Director of the Justice Gary S. Stein Public Interest Center at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, was quoted in several articles discussing the recent release of police disciplinary records by the New Jersey Attorney General’s office, including that the disclosures by Jersey City were less detailed than previous reports.

From NJ.com article, “More than 200 N.J. police officers received discipline in recent months, new data shows”

“These disclosures are proving that agencies will just provide less information to the public than they did before,” said open records attorney CJ Griffin, who first noted the Jersey City discrepancy on her blog.

From Hudsoncountyview.com article, “AG ‘major discipline’ police database lists 22 officers from Hudson, 7 from Jersey City”

Public records attorney CJ Griffin, a partner at law firm Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, wrote on her blog that the example of [Jersey City Police Officer] and others from the JCPD shows that the AG directive doesn’t do enough and is yet another reason internal affairs records need to be public.

“These disclosures are exposing how police departments will easily evade the very little transparency that AG Directive 2020-5 provides to the public,” she wrote.

“We find Jersey City Police Department’s major discipline report to be very troubling and indicative of what is almost certainly a larger problem: police departments being purposely vague and misleading in their disclosures now that they have to include officer names.”

From Politico New Jersey Playbook newsletter:

— @CJGriffinEsq: “Remember my tweet about anonymous cops who were disciplined in JC? JCPD has released a new version w/the names. Surprise (not), they provide FAR fewer details now. We need to pass #S2656 so we can see the actual files, not this spin”

To view the full nj.com article, click here.

To view the New Jersey OPRA blog post, click here.

To view the Hudson County View article, click here.