New Jersey Libertarian Party Open Government Advocacy Project: State Police dismiss Internal Affairs Complaint

	New Jersey Libertarian Party Open Government Advocacy Project: State Police dismiss Internal Affairs Complaint

Issue Detail:

: On March 19, 2009, I filed an Internal Affairs complaint against two State Troopers for conducting an illegal, warrantless search of a car on the New Jersey Turnpike on February 24, 2007. Trial and appellate courts both suppressed the illegally gained evidence after finding that the Trooper's search violated the Fourth Amendment. What had prompted me to file the complaint was Trooper Lewis Locchetto's testimony in the trial court that the warrantless search was not an accident or an aberration. Rather, Locchetto testified, it is the policy and practice of the New Jersey State Police to search motor vehicles without regard to whether or not a search warrant is legally required. In its June 5, 2009 letter, the State Police informed me Trooper Locchetto's unconstitutional search, "did not violate any of the New Jersey State Police Standard Operating Procedures, Rules and Regulations, or laws of the State of New Jersey." Apparently, the State Police do not feel that their internal policies need to conform to the Constitution. John Paff

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New Jersey Libertarian Party Open Government Advocacy Project: State Police dismiss Internal Affairs Complaint. August 03, 2009.
URL: http://ogtf.lpcnj.org/2009214pE/
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