LEGISLATIVE FISCAL ESTIMATE

[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY, No. 4653

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

221st LEGISLATURE

 

DATED: FEBRUARY 26, 2025

 

 

SUMMARY

 

Synopsis:

Requires AG to establish training program for crowd management and provide resources to municipal police department or force for large gatherings and flash mobs

Type of Impact:

Annual State Expenditure Increase.

Agencies Affected:

Department of Law and Public Safety.

 

Office of Legislative Services Estimate

Fiscal Impact

 

 

Annual State Expenditure Increase

Indeterminate

 

 

 

 

·       The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) finds that the bill would require an indeterminate increase in both upfront and ongoing expenditures for the Department of Law and Public Safety to establish a crowd management training program, establish a process for municipal law enforcement to request immediate support during a flash mob, and provide certain resources, as needed, to municipal law enforcement.  The OLS lacks sufficient information on the number of flash mob occurrences historically or the cost of the resources needed by local law enforcement to quantify the bill’s fiscal impact on the department.

 

BILL DESCRIPTION

 

      This bill requires the Office of the Attorney General to establish a crowd management training program and to provide resources to municipal law enforcement under certain circumstances.

      The Office of the Attorney General, in consultation with the New Jersey Division of State Police, the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management, and the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, is required to establish a training program for any municipal police department located within a municipality that, within the preceding twelve months, hosted two or more largescale gatherings or where a flash mob occurred.

      In addition, the bill requires the Office of the Attorney General to make certain resources available to any municipal police department that has participated in the training program, including: (1) access to social media monitoring tools; (2) mobile command units that may be deployed; and (3) additional personnel from the Division of State Police to provide support.  The Office of the Attorney General is also required to establish a process for law enforcement to request immediate support during a flash mob.

 

 

FISCAL ANALYSIS

 

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

 

      None received.

 

OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE SERVICES

 

      The OLS finds that the bill would require an indeterminate increase in both upfront and ongoing expenditures for the Department of Law and Public Safety to establish a crowd management training program, establish a process for municipal law enforcement to request immediate support during a flash mob, and provide certain resources, as needed, to municipal law enforcement.   

      The OLS anticipates that the department would experience one-time expenditures to establish: 1) the crowd management training program; and 2) the process for municipal law enforcement to request immediate support during a flash mob.  Any further periodic cost increases would result from the intermittent updating of the training course curriculum and instruction and the provision of State resources when requested by an affected municipality.  Currently, the New Jersey Police Training Commission’s Basic Course for Police Officers training curriculum has a training module dedicated to riot and crowd control as well as a revised training module regarding interactions with juveniles.

      The OLS cannot estimate the cost to develop and provide training to municipal law enforcement officers or to establish a policy for municipal law enforcement to reach out to the Office of the Attorney General for immediate support during a flash mob; however, the OLS determines that meeting these requirements of this bill may not be overly labor-intensive and that the concerned entities may be able to absorb the additional workload within their existing operating budgets.

      Additionally, the OLS lacks the informational basis to predict the frequency with which affected municipalities that have completed the training program will request resources from the Office of the Attorney General to arrive at a cost estimate for that provision of the bill.

 

 

Section:

Law and Public Safety

Analyst:

Kristin Brunner Santos

Lead Fiscal Analyst

Approved:

Thomas Koenig

Legislative Budget and Finance Officer

 

 

This legislative fiscal estimate has been produced by the Office of Legislative Services due to the failure of the Executive Branch to respond to our request for a fiscal note.

 

This fiscal estimate has been prepared pursuant to P.L.1980, c.67 (C.52:13B-6 et seq.).