o~ r»e sT.,r
e
~ .~~i
~S,,yam { ~l ~
..~ ~~

c►-►ass C►-~~z~s~~~~~-.
Gover~aor
KIM GUADAGNO
Lieutenant Governor

State ofNew Jersey
OFFICE Ol' TFIG ATTORNEY GENERAL
DCPARTMEN'P Of LAW AND PUE3LIC SAFETY
PO I3ox 080
"I'KCNroN, NJ 08625-0080

CHRIS'1'OPI•IER ~. PORRINO
f~llorney Genera!

ATTORNEY G~N~RAL LAW ENFORCEMENT DIRECTIVE NO. 201E-S
TO:

Director, Division of Criminal Justice
Superintendent, New Jersey State Police
All County Prosecutors
All County Sheriffs
All Chief Law Enforcement Executives

FROM:

Christopher S. Porrino, Attorney General

DATE:

October 4, 2016

SUBJECT:

Law Enforcement Directive Establishing aCommunity-Law Enforcement
Affirmative Relations Continuing Education Institute
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.
2.
3.

4.

Introduction and Overview: Using Continuing Education of Police Officers to
Build Upon Recent Attorney General Initiatives to Enhance Community-Law
Enforcement Relations ............................................. 2
Establishment of the Attorney General Community-Law Enforcement Affirmative
Relations Continuing Education Institute ............................... 6
Continuing Education Program ....................................... 6
A. Amival In-Service Training Participation ...................... 6
B. Methods of Satisfying Requirement .......................... 7
C. Qualifying Courses That Satisfy Other In-Service Training
Requirements ........................................7
D. Repeated Courses ........................................7
Qualifying Continuing Education Course Catalog ........................ 8
4.1 Designation of Qualifying Continuing Education Courses ............... K
A. Catalog of Qualifying Courses .............................. K
B. Standards for Designating Courses ........................... K
C. Disclaimer ..............................................X
D. Non-exhaustive List of Relevant Topics ....................... K
4.2 Course Selection ............................................... 9

New Jersry Is Air liyrral Opportrniily linry~lnyer !'rirurd on Itvcycled1'nper and is ltrcyclahle

 Page 2
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

1.

County Prosecutor's Authority ....................................... 9
Advisory Connmittee ............................................... 9
Virtual Firearms Simulation Model Programs ........................... 9
Questions .......................................................10
Effective Date ...................................................10

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW: USING CONTXNUING EDUCATION Or
POLICE OFFICERS TO BUILD UPON RECENT ATTORNEY GENERAL
INITIATIVES TO ENHANCE COMMUNITY-LAW CNFORCEMENT RELATIONS

In his conditional veto message returning tlssembly Bill No. 1663 (First Reprint) with
recommendations for reconsideration, Governor Christie recently emphasized that effective and
responsible law enforcement requires a collaborative relationship between the police and all residents
within their jurisdiction. The Governor further concluded that cultural diversity training would assist
in promoting positive interactions between police and the communities they sez~ve. To that end, on
August 9, the Governor signed Assembly Bill No. 1663 into law as amended in accordance with his
recommendations. The new law, P.L. 2016, c. 23, requires the Department of Law and Public
Safety to create or identify a uniform cultural diversity training course to promote positive interaction
with, and community outreach to, all residents within a community, including residents of all racial,
ethnic, and religious backgrounds and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. The
statute ~•equires that this cultural diversity course be rn.ade available to all county, municipal, aid
campus police departments in the State.
The statutory requirement to develop this specific training course presents an opportunity to
enhance the entire process by which officers throughout the State stay abreast of new developments
affecting the law enforcement profession and its relationship to the connmunity. Continuing
education must become an impoa~tant component of New Jersey's comprehensive plan of action for
enhancing police-community relations. To fully understand how and why in-service training can
contribute to the goal of promoting positive interactions between police and the communities they
serve, it is appropriate to recount recent initiatives undertaken by the Department of Law and Public
Safety to address one of the major challenges confronting police departments and community leaders
— the use of deadly force by police officers.
In 2015, events across the nation presented an opportunity, and responsibility, for my office
to re-examine our State's policies concerning the law enforcement decision to use deadly force and
the manner in which police-involved shootings are investigated. AlthoughNew Jersey's procedures
for investigating use-of-force incidents were already among the most comprehensive and rigorous
in the nation, the Attorney General issued a supplemental directive in July 2015 to strengthen those
investigative standards and ensure that best practices are followed uniformly across the state. The
supplemental directive ensures that all deadly-force incidents are investigated in a fair, expeditious,
thorough, and impartial manner that bolsters public confidence in the integrity and independence of
these investigations.

 1'a~;e 3
The Attorney General issued another directive on the same day instzucting police departments
how to deploy body-worn cameras in a manner• that promotes officer accountability while
simultaneously protecting officers from false allegations of excessive force and respecting citizens'
privacy rights. Body-worn cameras can enable police to docume~~t objectively the circumstances that
lead to the police decision to use force, including deadly force. After issuing the body-worn canac►•a
directive, the Attorney General awarded $2.5 millionin grant funds to help police departments obtain
these devices, and recently announced a second round of more than half a million dollars in g~•ant
funding. The Attorney General has since issued yet another directive that authorizes the measured
use of conducted energy devices so that these weapons might be more readily available as an
alternative to deadly force.
All three directives were designed to enhance police-community relations by addressing
different aspects of an especially sensitive issue —the use of lethal force by police against a citizen
— that by its inherent nature creates tension between police departments and the communities they
protect and serve. Recognizing the complexity of the issues relating to the police use of lethal force,
those directives addressed public concerns from different perspectives. The substantive content of
the directives is important. The deliberative and collaborative process by which those three
directives were developed and thereafter implemented also turned out to be critically important. The
cutting-edge policies and procedures established by those directives were not created in a vacuum.
Rather, they were the product of candid conversations between law enforcement executives and
comrr~unity leaders.
Those conversations did not cease when the directives were issued. The officer-involved
shooting supplemental directive called. for the creation of an Advisozy Committee, consisting of
members of the community and law enforcement, tasked to make recommendations on how to
further improve the process for investigating police use-of-force incidents. The body-worn camera
directive likewise established an Advisory Comnnittee to develop best practices on the use of tlaai
new technology. Recognizing that these directives share a common underlying purpose, namely, to
strengthen police-community relations, the two Advisory Committees have since been merged.
The officer•-involved shooting supplemental directive also instructed the Division of Cx•iminal
Justice and County Prosecutors to develop community outreach prog~•ams to ensure that county and
local law enforcement officials engage connmunity and faith-based leaders before use-of-force
incidents occur. Those outreach programs, which have been very well received, provide
opportunities to explain how the investigative process works and how multiple layers of review help
to ensure the independence and integrity of these investigations.
In addition to traditional community oufireach meetings to explain the law and Attorney
General policies governing the use of force by law enforcement, some prosecutors have invited
community and. faith-based leaders to gain hands-on experience in police use-of-force training by
using virtual firearms training simulators to show how split-second decisions actually are made.
These direct-participation scenario-based events provide community leaders the opportunity to walk
in the shoes of a police offcer during swiftly-evolving police-citizen encounters where the use of

 Page 4
deadly force may — or may not — be warranted. That experience has proved to be especially effective
at building bridges between community leaders and the law enforcement professionals attending
these events.
It is now appropriate to build upon the foundation laid by the prior Attorney General
directives, recognizing that the pursuit of enhanced police-community relations is a work in progress.
While it remains an important goal to foster communication between law enforcement chief
executives and community and faith-based leaders, it is just as important to build rank-and-file
officers into the process. It is not enough, in other words, to irr~pose and enforce policies and
protocols to channel the discretion of officers in the field. Rather, it is necessary to engage officers
in training that enables them to explore why those policies and protocols are needed to enhance thei~~
relationship with the citizens they protect and serve. The concerns, ideals, and values candidly
expressed at community-outreach events must be ingrained in the culture of modern policing, and
thus must be shared with every officer in every duty assignment. Community policing, after all, is
more than having uniformed officers walk a beat. Rather, it is an overarching strategy that depends
on collaboration between police departments and community groups to identify and solve local
neighborhood problems. At its core, community policing embraces the notion that officers are an
integral part of, not isolated from, the communities they serve. For comzxzunity policing to be
effective, officers at all ranks must understand why and how their decisions impact the community
by enhancing, or diminishing, public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the law
enforcement function.
Officers also will benefit from understanding how theiz• ~•elationship to the community affects
their own safety. When segments of our society are afraid or mistrustful of police, those citizens
during encounters with police are nnore likely to engage in behaviors, such as fighting or fleeing, that
put officers at risk. The goal of enhancing officer safety — a concern raised to the forefront by deeply
disturbing recent events across the nation where officers have been targeted for violence —cannot
be viewed in isolation from the goal of enhancing police-community relations.
While the core values of professionalism, fairness, compassion, and impartiality must first
be taught to new recruits at police academies, these principles also must be reinforced throughout
an officer's career. A continuing education program would help to ensure that every officer
understands how the exercise of police discretion is viewed by and impacts the community, and how
officers on patrol and every other duty assignnnent can contribute to the goal of impzoving policecommunity relations in aconstantly-changing world.
Pre-service training for police recruits is strictly regulated through prescribed curricula
approved by the Police Training Commission for county and local law enforcement agencies, and
by the Superintendent of State Police for Stai:e Police members. In contrast, in-service training fog•
current county, local, and campus police officers —the equivalent of continuing education programs
in other professions —for the most part is left to the discretion of local departments and County

 Page 5
Prosecutors. There are only a few statewide in-service training requirements.' At present, there is
no uniform statewide policy regarding the specific courses of in-service training that are provided
to county and local officers, and thus no uniform statewide policy to ensure that after graduating
from a police academy, officers participate in education programs to help them deal with the
challenges they will confront as the policing environment changes around them.
The uniform cultural diversity course developed pursuant to P.L. 2016, e. 23 is a crucial step
to help fill the void. However, no single course — even one as comprehensive as the one
contemplated by the new law2 —can ensure that officers will stay apprised of important
developments affecting police-community relations, especially if officers need only take the course
on a single occasion .The goal of maintaining the highest professional standards cannot be achieved
by asingle in-service training event. What is needed is an entire library of courses and a coordinated
continuing education system that provides opportunities for sustained professional growth
throughout an officer's career.
The Governor in his conditional veto message expressly recognized in this regard that the
Attorney General already has the authority to require individual local law enforcement departments
to abide by the basic components of a uniform statewide action plan to enhance police-community
relations. Although that plan necessarily includes the cultural diversity course required by the new
law, it should not be limited to that course given that the goal of enhancing police-community
relations is amulti-faceted one that requires a sustained, multi-faceted system fox educating officers
throughout their careers as peace officers.
For all of the foregoing reasons, it is appropriate to exercise the Attorney General's
constitutional and statutory authority as the State's chief law enforcement officer, responsible for the

See, ems., N.J.S.A. 2C:25-20a(2) (requiring four hours of annual in-service training on the handling,
investigation, and response procedures concerning reports of domestic violence and abuse and neglect of the elderly and
disabled); Attorney General Use of Force Policy (2000), §II(A) (requiring semiannual use of force and vehicular pursuit
training as part of the semiannual firearms re-qualification process). See also Attorney General Law Enforcement
Directive No. 2005-1 (requiring a single three-hour episode of in-service training on the uniform statewide policy that
prohibits all forms ofracially-influenced policing).
The statute requires the uniform cultural diversity course to include instruction on:
(1) the various cultural communities and the effects of diversity on community relations within a community;
(2) appropriate methods by which an officer may interact with people of various cultures and religions in the
community, with an emphasis on officer safety skills and conflict resolution techniques;
(3) best practices in law enforcement techniques when analyzing and solving local neighborhood problems,
meeting with community groups, and working with citizens on crime prevention programs; and
(4) the impact that police diversity skills have on overall law enforcement effectiveness.

 Page C
general oversight of law enforcement and for ensuring the uniform and efficient enforcement of the
criminal law and the administration of criminal justice, N.J.S.A. 52:17B-98, to establish and
implement a system of continuing education to enhance police-community relations.
Accordingly,I, Christopher S. Porrino, Attorney General of the State ofNew Jersey, pursuant
to the authority vested in me by the Constitution of the State of New Jersey and the Criminal Justice
Act of 1970, N.J.S.A. 52:17B-97 to -117, hereby DIRECT that all law enforcement agencies and
officers operating under the authority of the laws of the State of New Jersey implement and comply
with the following provisions:
2.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL COMMUNITY-LAW
ENFORCEMENT AFFIRMATIVE RELATIONS CONTINUING EDUCATION
INSTITUTE

There is hereby established in the Division of Criminal Justice an Attorney General
Community-Law Enforcement Affirmative Relations Continuing Education Institute ("Institute")
to implement and oversee the provisions of P.L. 2016, c. 23 and this Directive. The Institute shall
be staffed by such personnel in the Division of Criminal Justice as the Director of the Division
determines. The Institute shall work in cooperation with the County Prosecutors' Association of
New Jersey, the New Jersey State Police, the Office ofLaw Enforcement and Professional Standards,
the New Jersey Association of Chiefs of Police, and such other law enforcement agencies and
organizations, connmunity, faith-based, and educational organizations, and civic leaders as the
Director deems appropriate to accomplish the goals set forth in this Directive.
The Institute's mission shall include, but not be limited to, identifying or developing the
cultural diversity training course and materials required by P.L. 2016, c. 23. That course shall be
made available in a format that allows officers to pa,Y~ticipate via the Internet or to view an electronic
recording of the course (~, a DVD), and shall be designed so that it may be viewed in segments
over time to afford flexibility in scheduling an officer's participation. The course should not merely
present factual information, but rather shall, to the extent practicable, paresent and discuss scenarios
(i.e., scenario-based training) designed to enhance an officer's decision-making skills. The course
shall include a test to confirm that officers taking the course understand the principles that are
presented.
3.

CON'I'1NUING EDUCATION PROGRAM

Annual In-Service Trainin Participation. Every sworn officer employed on a fullA.
or part-time basis by a law enforcement agency operating under the authority of the laws of the State
of New Jersey shall, by December 1, 2017, participate in not less than five credit hours of qualifying
continuing education as defined in this Directive. Thereafter, such officers shall participate in not
less than three credit hours of qualifying continuing education per year.
On or before January 31 of each calendar year starting in 2018, each agency shall repoirt in

 Page 7
writing to the appropriate County ~'rosecuto~•, or to the Director of the Division of Criminal Justice
in the case of a State law enforcement agency, documenting 1) the i~umbe~• of sworn officers
employed by the agency who satisfactorily participated in the required number of qualifying
continuing education credit hours during the preceding calendar year, and 2) identifying the steps
that will be taken to ensure that any officer who did not participate in the required number of
qualifying continui~~g education credit hours in the preceding year satisfies that year's requirement
as soon as practicable. Each County Prosecutor shall report to the Director on compliance with this
Directive by county and municipal agencies subject to the Prosecutor's supe~•visory authority.
Nothing in this Directive shall be construed in any way to impose upper limits on the number of
hours of in-service training provided by a department.
Methods of Satisfvin~ Requirement. Participation in a qualifying course of
B.
instruction may be achieved by attending a live in-person presentation, by watching a live
presentation broadcast electronically from a remote location, or by viewing an online tutorial or prerecorded presentation (~, an NJ Learn or other web-based program, a DVD, etc.). Nothing in this
Directive shall be construed to require any officer to travel to a training site, and participation in
qualifying continuing education courses pursuant to this Directive may be satisfied by viewing
course materials, a video presentation, or an online tutorial while at the officer's duty station or such
other location, and at such times, as shall be determined by the chief executive of the agency that
employs the officer.
C.
Qualifying Courses That Satisfy Other In-Service Trainin~quirements.
Participation in a qualifying continuing education course also may be used to satisfy the in-service
training requirements associated with the semiannual firearms re-qualification process, see note 1,
provided that the continuing education course relates to the police use of force or techniques or
strategies to avoid the need to use force. Participation in a qualifying course of instruction also may
be used to satisfy the training requirements set forth in N.J.S.A. 2C:25-20a(2), see note 1, provided
that the continuing education course relates to interactions with persons duping domestic violence
incidents or investigations, or events or investigations involving the abuse of the elderly or disabled
persons. Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to excuse or reduce the in-service training
requirements set forth in the Attorney General Use of Force Policy or in N.J.S.A. 2C:25-20a(2).
Rather, this paragraph allows an in-service training event to satisfy the requirements set forth in the
Use of Force Policy and/or the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act while also satisfying the
continuing education provisions of this Directive. The chief executive of the agency that employs
the officer, or the County Prosecutor where the Prosecutor chooses to exercise such authority with
respect to agencies subject to the prosecutor's supervisozy authority, shall determine the content of
the in-service training provided to satisfy the in-service training requirements in the Use of Fo~•ce
Policy and the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act.
Repeated Courses. An officer shall not receive credit for participating in the same
D.
course of instruction presented on two or more occasions unless the course has been substantially
modified, as determined by the Institute.

 Page 8

4.

QUALIFYING CONTINUING EDUCATION COURSE CATALOG

4.1

Designation of ualifving; Continuin Eg ducation Courses.

A.
Catalog of Qualif~~; Courses. The Institute shall compile a catalog of courses oi'
instruction that are relevant to the goal of enhancing the relationship between police agencies and
officers and the communities they protect and serve. For purposes of this Directive, the tern "course
of instz•uction" includes a training course, program, seminar, presentation, moderated group
discussion, online tutorial, or other educational program or event designed to share information and
enhance the knowledge of course participants. Courses of instruction included in the Institute's
catalog shall constitute qualifying continuing education courses for purposes of the continuing
education requirement set forth in Section 3 of this Directive. The Institute shall designate the
number of credit hours that may be earned for each course. If a course of instruction is updated, the
Institute shall determine whether the course has been substantially modif ed for purposes of
subsection 3(D).
B.
Standards for Desi natin~ Courses. The Institute may establish standards for
determining which courses of instruction should be included in the catalog. These courses of
instruction may be developed by or specifically for the Institute, by or fox a New Jersey law
enforcement agency or a law enforcement agency in another jurisdiction, by a college, university,
oi• law school, or by anon-profit organization or foundation. The catalog shall not include any
course of instruction presented to officers by a foi•-profit corpo~•ation for a fee paid to be paid by the
of~eer's department or the officer. Nothing herein shall limit the authority of a law enforcement
agency to contzact with a vendor to design or develop a course.
Disclaimer. Inclusion in the catalog shall not be construed as an endorsement of the
C.
views oz• opinions expressed in the presentation of the course, but rather merely indicates a finding
by the Institute that the course is relevant to the goal of enha~acing police-community relations. The
authors and. presenters are solely responsible for the content of a qualifying course of instruction.
D.
Non-exhaustive List of Relevant Topics. Specific topics relevant to the general goal
of enhancing police-community relations may include, but need not be limited to: de-escalation
techniques; cultural dive~•sity and cultural awareness; racial p~•ofzling/racially-influenced policing;
implicit bias; conflict resolution; communications skills; crisis intervention training and responding
to persons with special needs (~, mental health issues); and investigating bias crimes.
4.2

Course Selection.

All officers should participate in the course of instruction identified or developed pursuant
to P.L. 2016, c. 23 within one year of the course being made available by the Department of Law and

 Page 9
Public Safety. (Note that the five-credit-hour requirement fox calendar year 2017 contemplates that
officers will participate in this particular course of instruction in that calendar year.) The Director
of the Division of Criminal Justice, or the County Prosecutor with respect to law enforcement
officers and agencies subject to the Prosecutor's supervisory authority, may at any time designate
one or more other courses of instruction that all officers should take within a prescribed period of
time. Otherwise, the determination as to which courses of instruction an officer participates in shall
be determined by the chief executive of the agency that employs the officer.
5.

COUNTY PROSECUTORS' AUTHORITY

County Prosecutors may submit for possible inclusion in the Institute's catalog any courses
of instruction provided to or by law enforcement agencies within the Prosecuto~•'s jurisdiction that
relate to the goal of enhancing police-community relations. Nothing in this Directive shall be
construed to limit the authority of a County Prosecutor to impose tan-service training requirements
for agencies subject to the Prosecutor's supervisory authority, to impose limits on which qualifying
courses of instruction officers may atCend, to determine how agencies subject to the Prosecutor's
supervisory authority comply with the semi-annual in-service training requirements set forth in the
Attorney General Use of Force Policy or the annual in-service training requirements set firth in
N.J.S.A. 2C:25-20a(2), see paragraph (C) of Section 3, ox to designate specified qualifying courses
of instruction that officers must attend. See subsection 4.2.
6.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

The Advisory Group established pursuant to the July 28, 2015 Supplerr~ental Directive
amending Attorney Genezal Law Enforcement Directive No. 2006-5 shall also serve to provide
advice to the Institute, and may review, comment on, and recommend courses of instruction for
inclusion in the Institute's catalog of qualifying courses. The Director of the Division of Criminal
Justice may in his or her discretion expaiad the membership of the Advisory Group to account for
this new task.
7.

VI12'I`IJAL FIREARMS SIMULATION MODAL PROGRAMS

Section 11 of the office•-involved shooting supplemental directive issued by the Attorney
General on July 28, 2015 called for the development of model outreach prog~azns to engage
community and faith-based leaders before use-of-force incidents occur•. Based upon extremely
positive feedback concerning one particular type of interactive outreach program that should be
replicated to the greatest extent practicable, County Prosecutors, working in cooperation with local
police officials, axe strongly encouraged to i~x~.plement a program in which selected comnnunity and
faith-based leaders and other appropriate civilians (~, leaders of college-based civil rights
organizations, etc.) are invited to use a virtual fi~•earms simulator to experience first-hand how police
officers decide whether to employ deadly force. The purpose of these interactive programs in which
community leaders portaay police officers in simulated encounters is not just to demonst~•ate to
civilian participants that police officers face dangers and have to make split-second, life-altering
decisions, but also to show how the physiological effects of stress during ause-of force encounter

 Page 10
impact an officer's ability to perceive and recollect critical facts. Each presentation should include
a discussion of how the Attorney General Use of Force Policy and the use-of force justification
defenses established under the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice apply to the specific audio-video
scenario that was presented. The program also should include a segment where each civilian who
portrayed a police officer is interviewed as if he or she were the principal of a use-of-force
investigation to demonstrate how human perception and memory can differ from an objective
electronic recording of sudden events.
$.

QUESTIONS

Questions concerning the interpretation or implementation of this Directive shall be
addressed to the Director of the Division of Criminal Justice, or his designee.
9.

EFFECTIVE DATE

This Directive shall take effect immediately, except that the annual continuing education
requirement set forth in Section 3 shall commence on Februazy 1, 2017 (the effective date of P.L.
2016, c. 23). Any course of instruction designated at any time as a qualifying course that is taken
during the period between the issuance of this Directive and February 1, 2017, shall be credited to
the officer's 2017 continuing education activities.

Christopher S. Porrino
Attorney General
ATTEST:

lie Honig
Director, Division of Criminal Justice
Issued on: October 4, 2016