New Jersey Libertarian Party Open Government Advocacy Project: Egg Harbor Township police revises their Internet reporting form

	New Jersey Libertarian Party Open Government Advocacy Project: Egg Harbor Township police revises their Internet reporting form

Issue Detail:

: On May 23, 2011, I posted an article entitled \"Libertarians ask Egg Harbor Township to revise its police internal affairs form\" which criticized the Egg Harbor Township (Atlantic County) Police Department\'s internal affairs reporting system. At issue was an on-line form that citizens were invited to use to report misconduct by township police officers. The reporting form improperly requested the complainant\'s date of birth, social security number and other sensitive information. I asserted that the intrusive information requests, along with a photograph of a police SWAT team breaking down a residence\'s door appearing at the top of the complaint form, might \"dissuade many members of the public from bringing internal affairs complaints to the police administration\'s attention.\" In a July 21, 2011 letter, Police Chief Michael J. Morris thanked the NJLP Police Accountability for expressing its concerns and stated that the police department, based on our suggestions, had modified its complaint form. The revised form, which is on-line at https://www.ehtpd.com/forms/complain.cfm removes the intimidating photo and most of the intrusive questions. It also explicitly advises citizens that complaint forms will be accepted and processed \"even if fields are blank and/or the form is not complete.\" Accordingly, even anonymous complaints can now be submitted on-line. Chief Morris\' letter is on-line at The Project\'s May 23, 2011 complaint letter and a screen-shot of the old reporting form are on-line here: http://ogtf.lpcnj.org/2011142Og//EggHarborPoliceForm.pdf John Paff, Chair New Jersey Libertarian Party\'s Police Accountability Project

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New Jersey Libertarian Party Open Government Advocacy Project: Egg Harbor Township police revises their Internet reporting form. July 31, 2011.
URL: http://ogtf.lpcnj.org/2011211Op/
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