By Joanna Putman
Police1
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Hundreds of officers who participated in a training conference in 2021 will be required to attend an event to be retrained after the training content was found to be inappropriate, Northjersey.com reported.
Street Cop Training, the company responsible for the 2021 conference, is now considered a prohibited training agency in nine states, including New Jersey, according to the report. The company has since filed for bankruptcy.
State officials found that resources and content provided in the training were harmful to women and minorities and glorified violence, according to the report. On Feb. 18, Attorney General Matthew Platkin ordered that all participants in the Street Cop conference must attend a retraining event on March 14 in Trenton.
Nearly 1,000 people attended the conference, including 240 current law enforcement officers from 87 agencies across New Jersey.
The move follows the December 2023 release of investigation findings from the State Comptroller. The comptroller’s office found that trainers advocated for stopping motorists without reason, illegally prolonging stops and using pain as a “weapon” while on duty, according to the report.
“We found so many examples of so many instructors promoting views and tactics that were wildly inappropriate, offensive, discriminatory, harassing and, in some cases, likely illegal,” acting Comptroller Kevin Walsh said in a December 2023 statement.
The retraining conference will include legal training on the Fourth Amendment and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, according to the report.