ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY, No. 4175

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  FEBRUARY 20, 2025

      The Assembly Appropriations Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Assembly Bill No. 4175 (1R).

      As amended and reported, this bill as amended requires the Attorney General (AG) to review and, if necessary, revise its use-of-force policy at least every even-numbered year or in such shorter time frame as needed.

      The bill requires that any revision to the Statewide use-of-force policy be in furtherance of the following core principles:

      (1)  respecting the sanctity of human life and serving the community;

      (2)  prioritizing other reasonable measures, including de-escalation, that must be attempted before resorting to the use of force;

      (3)  promoting the use of only objectively reasonable, necessary, and proportional force, including the use of deadly force only as a last resort; and

      (4)  articulating other duties attendant to the use of force, such as a law enforcement officer’s duty to intervene, to render medical assistance, and to report and review uses of force.

      The bill requires the policy to be transmitted to the chief or director of every municipal and county police department, every municipal and county prosecutor, and the Superintendent of State Police.

      The bill requires the AG, upon review of the policy as required by the bill, to hold three public hearings in order to receive feedback from the community.

      Moreover, the bill requires the AG to establish and maintain a procedure for reporting incidents involving use-of-force to the Department of Law and Public Safety, and to compile such information in a publicly accessible website.  Use-of-force incident information will be subject to the Open Public Records Act.

      Finally, the bill requires the AG to issue and revise as needed guidelines and procedures applicable to law enforcement encounters involving a barricaded individual.  Further, the Police Training Commission is required to develop and include barricaded individual training for law enforcement officers.  The bill requires that any revisions to the guidelines are in furtherance of the following components and principles:

      (1) situations involving barricaded individuals should be differentiated based on whether they involve a mental health crisis, with appropriate protocols like negotiation and non-lethal options tailored to the situation;

      (2)  initial responding officers are required to account for a barricaded individual’s primary language;

      (3)  law enforcement responses should incorporate crisis intervention, negotiation, and resolution techniques;

      (4)  supervisors and incident commanders are responsible for determining resolution tactics, factoring in input from tactical teams, negotiators, and mental health professionals;

      (5)  proper coordination between incident command systems and tactical teams, with crisis intervention officers responding to deescalate barricaded individual situations; and

      (6)  the appropriate role and use of mental health professionals, when available.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amendments:

      (1) Delete language concerning the use of stun guns as a non-lethal option and whether officers should prioritize waiting for conflict resolution rather than engaging the individual in a situation involving a barricaded individual;

      (2) Delete language specifying communication in a barricaded individual’s primary language by utilizing bilingual officers, interpreters, telephonic interpretation, or translation services; and

      (3) Make technical corrections.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) determines that the bill would result in a one-time indeterminate expenditure increase by the Department of Law and Public Safety to review and update the State’s use of force policy in accordance with four core principles laid out in the bull.  The department could also incur some indeterminate upfront costs to issue guidelines and procedures for law enforcement encounters with a barricaded individual.  Periodic costs would be incurred thereafter to update the policies as required.

      The OLS notes that the Office of the Attorney General issued a directive on August 22, 2024 that revises Statewide use of force policies as they relate to law enforcement responses to barricaded individuals.  As such, the provisions of the bill requiring that the department issue guidelines and procedures for law enforcement encounters involving a barricaded individual may not require any upfront costs to the department.

      The department would incur one-time indeterminate costs for the Police Training Commission to develop, or update, the basic training course curriculum to include training for officers and instructors on situations involving barricaded individual.  Further periodic cost increases to State and local law enforcement may result from the intermittent review and updating of the Statewide use of force policy, course curriculum, instruction, and examination.