Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin welcomed the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision affirming the State’s authority to assume control of the Paterson Police Department (PPD) in March 2023. The Court upheld the lawfulness of the supersession, which was initiated in response to longstanding challenges in oversight, accountability, and public trust within the department.

“As we have said for years, my office’s supersession of the Paterson Police Department is lawful—and we applaud the New Jersey Supreme Court for unanimously upholding that decision. For more than two years now, members of my department have worked side-by-side with the hard-working men and women of the PPD to make Paterson safer for all its residents. And despite the distractions of this litigation, they have made extraordinary progress on those goals—investing millions of dollars in modern crime-fighting technology, adopting a wide range of reforms to rebuild community trust and improve officer training and wellbeing, and achieving historic reductions in homicides and other violent crimes. Thanks to the Court’s definitive ruling this morning, that important work will continue undisturbed, ensuring that we can better serve the residents of our State’s third largest city — whose safety has been and will remain my top priority.” – AG Platkin