About 240 New Jersey police officers will have to be retrained next month, more than two years after they attended a 2021 Atlantic City conference that state officials said maligned women and minorities, glorified violence and likely violated state laws.
A Feb. 18 memo from Attorney General Matthew Platkin directed all current law enforcement officers who in any way participated in the October 2021 sessions by Street Cop Training to attend retraining on March 14 in Trenton.
Street Cop Training, an in-person and online police training company that recently filed for bankruptcy, has been listed as a prohibited training agency in nine states, including New Jersey, Illinois and California.
Founded in 2012 by former police officer Dennis Benigno, Street Cop Training was the subject of a State Comptroller’s Office investigation after the 2021 conference.
Released in December 2023, the report detailed numerous instances of unconstitutional policing tactics, discriminatory behavior, glorification of violence and denigration of women and minorities during the training event.
“We found so many examples of so many instructors promoting views and tactics that were wildly inappropriate, offensive, discriminatory, harassing, and, in some cases, likely illegal,” acting Comptroller Kevin Walsh said in a December 2023 statement.
Instructors advocated