swatteam

In a May 23, 2011 letter, the chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Police Accountability Project asked Egg Harbor Township (Atlantic County) Mayor James McCullough to review and update the police department's on-line internal affairs reporting form.

In the letter, Project's chairman John Paff noted that the department's on-line form, upon which citizens are asked to report police misconduct, improperly requests that citizens submit their dates of birth, social security numbers and identify the race to which they belong. Paff claims that although complaint forms can be submitted without these questions being answered, asking for this highly sensitive information is likely to "dissuade many members of the public from bringing internal affairs complaints to the police administration's attention." Also, Paff questioned the police department's decision to put a photograph of a police SWAT team breaking down a residence's door at the top of the complaint form.

The letter to Mayor McCullough and a screen-shot of the current reporting form are on-line here: http://ogtf.lpcnj.org/2011142Og//EggHarborPoliceForm.pdf.

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