Paper trail

Eight Warren Township police officers enrolled in law enforcement training classes given by the private firm Street Cop Training from 2018 to 2022, according to invoices uncovered by an anonymous Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request.

Those documents, posted on the website www.opramachine.com were located by Inside – Middlesex on Thursday, Jan. 4 during a series of internet searches.

Warren Township Committee members acknowledged during their Dec. 14 public meeting that an internal affairs investigation is underway involving the Warren Township Police Department.

The billing documents released through the OPRA filing – and a seeming attempt to stymie their release – suggest that internal affairs probe might involve the training of multiple officers.

Meanwhile, other documents show the OPRA filer and Warren Township officials have been engaged in a back-and-forth over the release of material since the request was filed on Dec. 11.

Sixty-six pages of billing documents – some of them duplicates – are posted on the opramachine.com website in relation to the December filing. They include invoices suggesting that WTPD Lt. Robert Ferriero and seven other officers attended Street Cop Training classes given in various locations and that Warren taxpayers footed a bill totaling about $2,350.

That total was for the officers’ class registrations. It is not clear if the officers were on their own time or the department’s when taking the courses.

Ferreiro – who was selected as Warren’s next police chief last October – has been under the microscope since the Dec. 6 release of a State Comptroller Office’s report. It documented the comptroller’s findings related to Street Cop Training’s six-day 2021 seminar in Atlantic City.

Ferreiro was one of multiple Street Cop instructors called into question in the report as allegedly imparting unconstitutional and/or discriminatory and misogynistic tactics. Street Cop Training is a private firm that has offered law enforcement instruction classes since its founding in 2012.

Ferreiro is not currently listed as an instructor on Street Cop Training’s website.

Roughly 1,000 police officers from across the nation, including about 250 from New Jersey, attended the 2021 Atlantic City sessions outlined in the report. The comptroller contends that seminar could prove costly to taxpayers due to the need to retrain officers and potential litigation.

Ferreiro’s intended Dec. 31 swearing-in as the successor to recently retired Warren Township Police Chief William Keane was deferred due to the internal affairs investigation involving the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office. On Dec. 20, the county prosecutor assumed oversight of the WTPD.

Reached by email on Friday, Jan. 5, the prosecutor’s Assistant Chief Frank Roman would not comment when asked about the documents on the opramachine website. Roman was named as the lead in oversight of the WTPD by Somerset County Prosecutor John P. McDonald.

“I cannot comment on investigations,” Roman said via email.

The released Street Cop billing documents show Warren officers enrolled in classes such as “Deceptive Behaviors and Hidden Compartments,” “Identifying Criminal Vehicles,” “Interview and Interrogation,” and “Auto Theft and Vehicle Crime.”

The documents show the WTPD was billed for Ferreiro to attend a two-day seminar entitled “Street Smart Cop/Pro Patrol Tactics” from Feb. 4-5, 2019. Other officers enrolled in various seminars from 2018 through 2022, according to the OPRA-released records.

The released material includes a thank you from Street Cop Training to the WTPD, prodding it to release an apparently delayed payment. It reads, in part:

“Dear Warren Township Police Department,

We just want to say that we appreciate your business and are in the process of following up with our open invoices. We have found that sending an email to remind our clients has helped everyone better communicate regarding payments for services received. We completely understand that in some places it takes a little bit of time to process payments.”

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The purchase orders for the classes attended by Warren Township officers were payable to NJ Criminal Interdiction LLC, (doing business as) Street Cop Training.

The opramachine site allows for the filing of records requests anonymously. The unknown filer disputed the initial withholding of certain records.

The Dec. 11 OPRA filing sought various WTPD documents. They included:

• Ferreiro’s attendance records indicating days off, days worked, and absences for the years 2018 to date.
• WTPD’s outside employment policy and the department’s rules and regulations.
• Any municipal records showing WTPD officers’ attendance at Street Cop Training seminars.
• Payment documents for any Street Cop sessions attended.
• All expenses/travel paid by the municipality for WTPD members to attend Street Cop sessions.

Township Clerk Cathy Reese replied through the opramachine site that more than the standard seven business days would be needed to fulfill the request.

On Dec. 13, Reese responded again to the OPRA filer.

“Dear Anonymous,

We have been informed that Police Lt. Ferriero is currently the subject of an active County Prosecutor’s Office Internal Affairs Investigation. Under current NJ case law, police internal affairs investigation documents are not subject to public release under OPRA or the Common Law Right of Access.”    

The unknown filer, however, answered back, finding fault with Reese’s response. The filer – using the identifier “we” – questioned whether all requested documents were restricted from release, particularly referring to WTPD regulations and outside employment policy.

“It would be hard to believe that those mentioned records are not available to anyone else in the Warren Police Department due to an ongoing internal affairs investigation. If it is available to other officers not involved in the investigation then it is available to members of the public.”

The filer noted that an entire OPRA request could not be denied even if some of it qualified for exemption. The filer urged Reese to consult with legal counsel, threatening to take the matter to a higher authority. 

“The refusal to answer or purposely ignoring your emails in reference to the OPRA requests and updates, will shine a negative light on you and your jurisdiction when we file our complaint with the GRC (Government Records Council) or in Superior Court, if you chose to refuse to release the requested and available records that do not fall under any of the exemptions.”

On Dec. 15, Reese released WTPD rules and regulations and its outside employment policy. On Jan. 3, she released documents on Street Cop Training seminar attendance and payments. Reese noted that no documents were found for related travel expenses in municipal files. 

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