The Justice Department will place the Newark Police Department under a monitor later this year, the first time in New Jersey history that a municipal police agency will operate under a federal watchdog, according to four sources familiar with the situation, the Newark Star Ledger reports.
The decision follows a federal review of the way the state’s largest police force swept aside accusations of misconduct against hundreds of officers and its almost-total failure to address complaints of brutality and abuse lodged by Newark residents over the years.
The investigation began in 2011, a year after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a scathing 96-page petition with the Department of Justice, accusing Newark’s police of rampant misconduct.