Police Accountability Project of the
New Jersey Libertarian Party
P.O. Box 5424
Somerset, NJ  08875

August 6, 2013

Lieutenant Mark Miller
Jersey City Police Department, IA Unit
1 Journal Square Plaza – 4th Floor
Jersey City, NJ  07306 
(Via Fax to 201-547-5512)

Dear Lieutenant Miller:

I chair the New Jersey Libertarian Party’s Police Accountability Project and ask that you accept this letter as our Internal Affairs complaint.  We would like your agency to investigate whether various Jersey City officers and other personnel employed by your agency acted in accordance with department policy and the law regarding a search of an apartment on April 2, 2011.

According to Judge Joseph V. Isabella’s July 24, 2012 opinion, which was affirmed by the Appellate Division decision in State v. Mitchell and Hoffman, Docket No. A-0224-12T2 (on-line here), the officers apparently searched an apartment before a search warrant was issued.
This caused the Judge Isabella to suppress the handgun and drugs found in the apartment because the warrantless search was unconstitutional.

If your officers, despite having received adequate training and direction regarding when and how to conduct warrantless searches elected to ignore their training, we ask that you discipline them. Otherwise, we ask that your department review and supplement your training requirements in this area of the law.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Very truly yours,

John Paff, Chairman
New Jersey Libertarian Party
Police Accountability Project
P.O. Box 5424
Somerset, NJ  08875-5424
Phone: 732-873-1251 – Fax: 908-325-0129
Email: [email protected]

— Subsequent Action

December 9, 2013 – Dismissed for lack of evidence (click here)

Chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Open Government Advocacy Project. Please send all comments to [email protected]