A scathing report from the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller just blew the lid off a private policing conference that teaches some problematic (and that’s an understatement) principles about being a cop.
In 2021, an organization called Street Cop Training held a six-day conference in Atlantic City that hosted up to 1,000 police officers. The report says 240 of those cops were from New Jersey and attended the conference on $75,000 of taxpayer money. Over the course of the event, the guests were supposed to learn how to “catch more criminals, save more lives, have more impact and get home safely,” as the Street Cop website says.
Sounds good, right? Don’t get too excited...
Videos taken of the conference showed instructors from various law enforcement agencies and prosecutor’s offices deliver TED Talk-like speeches laced with rather violent and discriminatory language regarding policing.
“I’m not talking about the guy who’s f-cking recording you, like, ‘I am not a citizen of the United States and f-cking Act 12, 6.’ Shut the f-ck up, right? About to get pepper-sprayed, f-cking tased, windows broken out, motherf-cker,” said founder Dennis Benigno.
“I love violence. I love fighting. I love shooting...” said one speaker from the Army.
“Run from me, somewhere along the chase, it becomes ‘pow pow pow’,” said one former cop.
The investigative report slammed the conference for promoting an “us vs. them” approach and tactics that would undermine almost “a decade of police reform efforts” in New Jersey. The report accused the organization of providing training that encourages officers to use techniques that violate civil right and promotes a toxic culture that makes women and people of color “feel unwelcome.”
In response to being exposed, a spokesperson for Street Cop — who referred to the organization as the “most praised police training organization” — said in no way does it condone bad policing.
“However, there is not one single instance in the OSC Report where we have advocated any practice that is inconsistent with quality policing. Isolated excerpts taken out of context from a week-long training are not reflections of the overall quality of the education that Street Cop provides,” they said in a statement to CBS News.
It’s unclear if any disciplinary action would be (or can be) taken toward the organization. However, CBS reports the state Attorney General referred the comptroller’s report to the Division of Civil Rights and ordered the State Police to stay away from the conference.