The New Jersey Senate voted out a package of bipartisan bills addressing racial bias and increased diversity among police forces. The New Jersey State Bar Association’s (NJSBA) Commission on Racial Equality in the Law is tasked with studying policies and initiatives, including legislation, to identify methods of addressing root causes of inequities in the profession and in the law. The package of bills passed last week includes:
- S-401 (Turner) would require law enforcement agencies in the state to establish minority recruitment and selection programs
- S-415 (Turner) would require the Division of Parole to offer services to certain defendants who have served their maximum sentence (Currently, parole services are only offered to those released on parole.)
- S-419 (Turner) would require law enforcement agencies to provide law enforcement officers with cultural diversity training and develop a diversity action plan
- S-2635 (Gill)/S-2578 (Singleton) would include false incrimination and filing false police reports as a form of bias intimidation (It would also establish making false 911 calls with the purpose to intimidate or harass based on race or other protected class a crime.)
- S-2689 (Greenstein) would require the Department of Law and Public Safety to incorporate implicit bias in cultural diversity training materials for law enforcement officers (Under the bill, cultural diversity and implicit bias training would be mandatory for all law enforcement officers. The Assembly passed the bill in June.)
Immediate issuance of marriage/civil union licenses
The Assembly advanced A-2717 (Murphy), which would provide for the immediate issuance of marriage and civil union licenses and provides for a 72-hour waiting period prior to the ceremony, except in certain circumstances where a waiver is sought. The NJSBA supported this measure as a way to streamline an outdated, onerous process. The bill remains pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Modernization of business filing
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