Going rogue

A private police training firm’s 2021 seminar has come under investigation by the State Comptroller’s Office for instructing law enforcement officers in discriminatory tactics and to ignore motorists’ constitutional rights.

The comptroller’s report was released on Dec. 6 with the state continuing to look into certain aspects of the training, including how much taxpayer money was spent statewide to pay for New Jersey police officers’ attendance.

Middlesex Police Chief Matt Geist said on Dec. 8 that no members of his department were registered for the controversial six-day seminar, given in Atlantic City in October 2021 by the firm, Street Cop Training.

The story, however, is different a few miles away in Warren Township. There, an internal affairs investigation is under way.

Police Lt. Robert Ferreiro – who has been announced as Warren’s next police chief – was named in the comptroller’s report as a seminar instructor with some of his lessons called into question. Ferreiro was among multiple instructors mentioned in the report.

In one seminar presentation, titled “Criminal Vehicles and Occupants,” Ferreiro discussed making eye contact with drivers during motor vehicle stops, according to the report. Ferreiro repeatedly referred to that tactic as “eye f**king,” the report alleges.

At one point, Ferreiro talked of making eye contact with a female suspect during a motor vehicle stop. The report quotes Ferreiro as instructing he had “eye f**ked the shit out of the female driver. She doesn’t want to f**k me back though.”

Ferreiro is also mentioned in the report’s section that discusses a lesson on prolonging motor vehicle stops to allow for further driver questioning. Ferreiro explained a tactic as “a little bit of a mental f**k” where he will return only one document, such as an auto insurance card, so the driver thinks the stop has concluded.

The report, however, criticized that tactic. “This approach is legally flawed,” the report reads, noting most motorists would not feel free to leave. “Providing an assurance, or giving some but not all documents back to the motorist, will not legitimatize a stop that has been illegally prolonged.”

Current Warren Township Police Chief William Keane is retiring at year’s end. Keane told New Jersey Monitor that the internal affairs probe had been launched but otherwise declined to comment on Ferreiro’s activities.

The Warren Township Committee announced in October that Ferreiro had been chosen to succeed Keane after an interview and selection process. Four senior officers were considered to lead the Warren force.

Ferreiro, who joined the WTPD in January 2007, was promoted to lieutenant only six months ago.

“We are completing an internal investigation, but I do not expect anything to hold up our plans to appoint Rob as the new chief,” Warren Township Committeeman Victor Sordillo said via email on Monday, Dec. 11.

Ferreiro worked the seminar on his own time, according to Sordillo. The municipality did not pay for Ferreiro or any other officers to attend the seminar, Sordillo added, “to the best of my knowledge.”

“We did a thorough review of his records and a comprehensive interview,” Sordillo said of the recent chief selection process. “He was clearly the best choice. I expect the Township Committee will stay on schedule for his swearing in.”

Asked by Inside – Middlesex if Ferreiro’s Dec. 31 swearing in might be postponed pending a further state investigation, Sordillo said, “I am only one (Township Committee) vote, so there is always a chance.”

“Rob Ferreiro has been an exceptional police officer,” Sordillo concluded. “He has risked his life many times for the safety of the community. I am impressed by his dedication and hard work.”

There has already been legal fallout from the state probe. On Thursday, Dec. 7, Bergen County prosecutors dropped charges in a drug case involving a Street Cop trainer named in the comptroller’s report. That trainer, a Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office detective, had stopped a car while he was a municipal police officer in 2017 and found two kilograms of heroin, according to the New Jersey Monitor story.

There could be more abandoned charges. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey expects that police officers in defendants’ cases statewide will be asked if they’ve attended any Street Cop Training sessions since the firm was founded in 2012.

Nearly 1,000 law enforcement officers nationwide attended the 2021 Atlantic City conference, with about 240 from the Garden State, according to the comptroller’s report. Officers attended both in-person and virtually. The 240 New Jersey officers came from agencies at all levels of law enforcement. Most had their attendance paid for by their public employers.

The comptroller’s investigation confirmed that at least $75,000 in public funds was directly spent by New Jersey entities on conference attendance. That number does not include paid time off and/or paid training days related to officers’ attendance.

The probe was launched after the comptroller’s office received information raising concerns about wasteful spending by New Jersey police departments. That info was related to the 2021 Street Cop seminar’s content.

The $75,000 public funds total is an estimate as the comptroller could not conclusively determine exactly how much was spent by New Jersey public entities on the conference or exactly who attended or viewed it online. Street Cop produced incomplete and inaccurate information, according to the comptroller.

That total may only be a fraction of the conference’s long-term costs, the comptroller contends. Continued costs may be incurred from the need to retrain officers and litigation from unconstitutional policing tactics.

Reminder

Subscribe to Inside – Middlesex. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. It is absolutely free.