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Letters to the editor
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Monday,
November 14, 2005
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Defending actions of state troopers
I read
with great dismay an opinion piece written by Aref Assaf, President of
the American Arab Forum, that appeared in the Herald News on Sunday,
Nov. 6. While Mr. Assaf shares my own deep concern about civil rights
for Arab Americans, as well as for all the citizens of this state, the
piece contained a very serious error that demands clarification and
correction to the readership of this newspaper.
Mr. Assaf writes: "...the recent allegation that the state police,
through its Office of Counterterrorism, has specifically targeted new
state residents who are Muslim solely because of their religious
affiliations. The state police admitted that it has racially profiled
Muslims."
No part
of this statement bears any truth. First, the Office of Counterterrorism
is separate and distinct from the Division of State Police and is
located within the Office of the Attorney General. Its existence and
authority is established from the Governor's Executive Order 33, most
recently superceded by Executive Order 57.
Secondly, as widely reported in the media, the state police raised a
genuine concern to the New Jersey Attorney General when well over 100
reports submitted by the Office of Counterterrorism (O.C.T.) to our
intelligence database identified individuals and groups without the
specific and required relationship to criminal activity.
None of
these reports were authored by a state trooper assigned to O.C.T. To be
clear on this point: There were no intelligence report errors by
troopers. There were no allegations against troopers. Since the
submission of those reports, and at the direction of the Attorney
General, personnel from the Office of Counterterrorism have received
training commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice on adhering to
federal reporting requirements in intelligence databases.
We
support this training, as we continue to support the mission of the
Office of Counterterrorism in the proper conduct of investigations
concerning threats to New Jersey. The citizens of this state should
expect no less from our two agencies.
An
allegation of racial profiling raises a dangerous specter in the state
police, in the minds of every hard-working trooper, and to me,
personally. Our organization has worked very hard to develop and
implement clearly defined protocols with strict managerial safeguards
that protect both the public and the troopers.
Bolstered by advances in technology, the New Jersey State Police is now
viewed as a national model for the manner in which we conduct motor
vehicle stops, use of force situations and consent searches as well as
for our academy training and internal investigations. As further
evidence, I kindly refer you to the semiannual reports submitted by the
independent monitoring team working for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Those reports can be accessed through the New Jersey Attorney General's
web site.
The
state police prides itself on its relationship with the community. In
fact, there is a Community Partnership Troop within our operations
branch that fosters this relationship on a daily basis. The troop
commander, Maj. Wendy Galloway, is well known to many Arab American
organizations in this state, and works very hard on my behalf to ensure
an open line of communication with the Muslim community. I cannot permit
some erroneous statements to undermine that longstanding and trusting
relationship. I thank the editors of the Herald News for this
opportunity to respond.
Col.
Joseph R. Fuentes, superintendent, New Jersey State Police |
