NJ Attorney General: State Police Not Catching Troopers' "Troubling" Mistakes

Nearly a third of surveyed stops had issues including illegal vehicle searches and excessive use of force

Troopers patrolling New Jersey's highways are breaking State Police rules at a "troubling" rate, and supervisors are not doing enough to catch the mistakes and fix them, according to a new report by the state Attorney General's Office.

The report, which covered the first half of 2012, found the State Police failed to identify mistakes by troopers ranging from excessive force to improper vehicle searches in nearly a third of the 155 stops they were required to examine.

That shortcoming was made worse by the fact that the Attorney General's Office recently allowed State Police supervisors to review fewer stops overall, with the caveat that they do a thorough job analyzing them.