Lawmakers look to take state police from attorney general’s control

by Dana DiFilippo, New Jersey Monitor
June 26, 2025

Several state legislators want to take the New Jersey State Police out of the state attorney general’s supervision and make it its own entity, a move that comes amid escalating tensions between the two.

Under a bipartisan bill introduced last week, the 3,000-member agency would no longer be a division under the Department of Law and Public Safety, which Attorney General Matt Platkin heads, and instead would become a state department, with its superintendent answering directly to the governor.

Sen. Michael Testa (R-Cumberland) said he signed on as one of the bill’s five sponsors because of directives Platkin and his predecessor, Gurbir Grewal, have issued in recent years that limit police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement agents and divert law-breaking youth from criminal justice involvement.

Those directives have kept officers from doing their jobs, Testa said. The agency’s top brass should instead decide policing policies, he added.

“I want the state police to have the handcuffs taken off of them and put the handcuffs on the criminals, where they belong,” he said.

Beyond disagreements over directives, the attorney general’s role in ensuring police accountability also has increasingly put him at odds with the state’s largest police force.

Platkin’s office oversees police licensing, investigates fatal police encounters and official misconduct, and publicly reports major discipline levied against officers statewide. He’s issued bombshell reports on racism in the agency’s promotions and internal affairs and has been investigating allegations that state troopers reduced traffic enforcement in response to racial profiling claims.

Several of the bill’s sponsors deny that it’s a response to such scrutiny.

“This legislation has nothing to do with that,” said Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Morris).

It has more to do with bureaucracy, he added.

“I’ve heard from a number of retired troopers over the last couple of years that promotions are slow getting done, that different things that are requested take a long time to get approved,” Bucco said. “That makes an awful lot of sense because the attorney general’s office is enormous. The Department of Law and Public Safety is enormous. The attorney general has a lot on his plate, and to put the state police in there as a division promotes, almost, that turmoil because sometimes they can’t operate as efficiently and as quickly as they should be able to.”

Sen. Robert Singer (R-Monmouth) conceded that Platkin has ruffled a lot of feathers since he became attorney general in February 2022.

“I don’t think the AG has missed poking anybody in the eye, from the governor on down,” Singer said.

But he said he signed on as a bill sponsor because he felt the state police deserve “a seat at the table,” and Col. Patrick Callahan, the agency’s superintendent since 2017, should have equal footing with other members of the governor’s cabinet.

Sen. James Beach (D-Camden), the bill’s leading sponsor, seconded that sentiment but also pointed to Platkin’s lack of policing experience.

“We have a politically appointed attorney general, a politically appointed lawyer, who really doesn’t know anything about policing and has never been a cop, and he is telling a force of men and women who are professionals in policing what they can and can’t do,” Beach said. “I just don’t think it makes sense.”

Mike Symons, a spokesman for Platkin’s office, and Tyler Jones, a spokeswoman for Gov. Phil Murphy, declined to comment. Spokespeople for the state police didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The bill has the cautious support of the NAACP New Jersey State Conference, whose leaders have long called for a clean sweep of the state police’ top brass over discrimination concerns.

Attorney Gregg Zeff, who represents the NAACP, said the group supports the bill conceptually but wants improvements to “give it teeth.” That could come in the form of other legislative efforts to create an inspector general in New Jersey to ensure robust, independent oversight of the police.

“The primary function of our State Police is law enforcement and public safety. The attorney general’s primary function should be legal leadership, oversight, and prosecution. The overlap in these functions makes it difficult in both offices to avoid conflicts and provide appropriate leadership without blending many separate issues together— resulting often, in our opinion, in quid pro quo decisions, actions, and compromises that the public cannot easily reconcile,” Zeff said in a statement.

Lauren Bonds heads the National Police Accountability Project.

State police being under the direct supervision of a governor is “the standard model” in most states around the country, she said. But shifting who’s tasked with police oversight for political reasons also is common, she added.

“This is usually a supportive relationship that you see between state police and the state’s AG, but there can be times where there is tension and division, when the attorney general is maybe a progressive prosecutor or somebody who came in with police reform being one of their top priorities,” Bonds said.

The bill has no Assembly companion and is unlikely to pass this legislative session because lawmakers are expected to recess by Tuesday for the summer and not return until after the November general election. They then have less than two months to act on unfinished business before the next legislative session begins Jan. 13.

January is also when a new governor will be sworn in — Murphy cannot seek a third term in November — who will presumably name their own attorney general to replace Platkin.

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