Calls for Federal Investigation of Paterson Police Department Grow

The shooting death of Najee Seabrooks has led local and state activists to call for the federal government to investigate the Paterson Police Department (PPD).

Seabrooks, an anti violence activist in Paterson, barricaded himself inside his own home on March 3 and entered into a standoff with cops during an apparent mental health episode. After several hours of negotiations, Paterson police officers shot and killed Seabrooks, allegedly because he had brandished a knife.

The handling of the standoff by the city’s police department has been questioned, including their failure to deploy a crisis intervention team from St. Joseph’s University Medical Center during the four hour standoff. Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh has called for the immediate release of the body camera footage from the police-involved shooting.

Outrage in Paterson

St. Joseph’s has a partnership with the Paterson Healing Collective, the violence intervention group for which Seabrooks worked. Healing Collective members have stated Seabrooks called and texted them during the early stages of the police encounter, asking them to help him. The group contends Seabrooks would still be alive if its members had been allowed to intervene.

The death of Seabrooks is just the last incident where residents of the city have questioned the PPD. The issue reached a boiling point at a city council meeting March 14 that included a near-confrontation between Councilman Michael Jackson and Paterson Finance Director Javier Silva as well as Councilwoman Lilisa Mimms accusing Business Administrator Kathleen Long of making a disparaging comment. 

Federal Intervention

Those in attendance noted how residents are treated differently than officers over a decision not to allow everyone who came to City Hall to enter the council meeting room. Residents asserted that the same capacity limits had not been enforced for a recent police promotion ceremony in the same room.

As a result of the Seabrooks’ death and the recent history of corruption and alleged abuse, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice is asking U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to conduct an investigation into the “widespread unlawful and unconstitutional conduct perpetuated by the Paterson Police Department.” 

“Residents of Paterson have lived for years under a police department with a history of excessive force and other abuse, all felt disproportionately by Black and Brown residents in one of the most diverse cities in the country,” the letter states.

PPD History

The letter from NJISJ, which includes the NAACP New Jersey State Conference, the ACLU of New Jersey, and 45 other organizations in its coalition, highlighted incidents by the PPD of corrupt practices such as illegal searches and seizures, a lack of oversight and racial disparities in treatment. 

“These unlawful and unconstitutional incidents establish a pattern and practice of misconduct and impunity that deprives the residents of Paterson of their civil rights,” wrote NJISJ. “Of particular concern is PPD’s absence of accountability and failure to govern itself, a recipe for the continuance of the unconstitutional behavior described above.”

The institute offered that the trend of “widespread, unconstitutional PPD misconduct is unmistakable—and has disproportionately impacted Black and Brown residents, depriving them of their civil rights.”

The coalition noted that despite Black people being 24.7% of the population of Paterson, they account for 49% of arrests and 43% of officer-involved killings. And they cited a New Jersey Attorney General Office’s report that between October 2020 to December 2022, PPD used force on 495 people, 257—or 52%—of whom were Black.

Historical Precedent

The need for federal intervention has both New Jersey and national precedent. In the Garden State, the Department of Justice intervened in 1999 after suing the state for “intentional racial discrimination” involving stops, searches and other post-stop actions of Blacks by New Jersey State Troopers. And in 2016, it found the Newark Police Department had engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional stops, searches, arrests, use of excessive force and theft by officers.

For more recent examples, NJISJ offered the cases where six PPD officers either pleaded or were found guilty in a case brought by federal authorities. Jonathan Bustios, Eudy Ramos, Matthew Torres, Frank Toledo and Daniel Pent all plead guilty while Michael Cheff was found guilty for robbing and beating people they illegally stopped in Paterson, crimes they tried to cover up with false police reports.

“The PPD incidents discussed above establish a pattern or practice that PPD engages in conduct that deprives the public of rights, privileges or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States,” stated the letter. “DOJ must intervene to bring about the kind of accountability that Mr. Seabrooks and his family, and others like them, deserve – along with the people of Paterson.”