State Takeover of New Jersey Police Department Was Lawful, Court Rules

New York|State Takeover of New Jersey Police Department Was Lawful, Court Rules

The attorney general of New Jersey will be allowed to maintain control over the troubled Police Department in Paterson, the state’s third largest city, after the State Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that a takeover of the law enforcement agency had been justified.

The ruling, which was unanimous, affirmed the decision of the attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, to seize control of the department in 2023, following a series of police shootings that had roiled Paterson, an industrial city in the northern part of the state. The court affirmed Mr. Platkin’s argument that state law allowed him to “directly manage law enforcement agencies” in times of crisis. The justices overturned an earlier ruling in favor of city leaders who had sued to regain control of the police.

In a statement following the decision, Mr. Platkin thanked the court. “As we have said for years, my office’s supersession of the Paterson Police Department is lawful,” he said.

The conflict over who should manage the Paterson police began as soon as Mr. Platkin announced the takeover in 2023.

That year, André Sayegh, Paterson’s mayor, and other city leaders sued to regain control. In 2024, an appellate court sided with them.

But Mr. Platkin quickly appealed that ruling, arguing at the time that since his office had taken over the department, “murders, shootings, sexual assaults, robberies and other violent crime in Paterson have all plummeted, while officer morale and community trust have dramatically improved.”