Editor's Note: It is entirely possible that one our our sheriff's deputies does not have a license to be a policeman!

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Time to Tell Jersey Police: License, Please

Published in the Star Ledger on February 16, 2006.

BY DEBORAH JACOBS

We take it as a given that any profession or occupation that involves interaction with the public will be regulated by a state agency. Accountants, architects, attorneys, cosmetologists, dentists and doctors are required to undergo training, meet selection standards and, if they commit misconduct, have their licenses or certifications revoked by the regulating body.

But what about police officers or sheriff's deputies? As incredible as it sounds, in New Jersey the public is better protected against recklessmanicurists and dentists than rogue police officers.

In recent weeks, two cases reported in The Star-Ledger illustrate our need for a system to certify and decertify police in New Jersey. In December, thepaper reported that Newark Deputy Police Chief Vincent Gagliano had a 1976 felony conviction on his record and had illegally carried a gun as a policeofficer since 1980. This was discovered when he applied for a new gun permit and indicated on the application that he had no felony convictions, which abackground check revealed to be false.

If New Jersey had licensing for law enforcement professionals, Gagliano's criminal history would have been reviewed prior to his certification as apolice officer, and we would not have had a convicted felon illegally carrying a weapon under the authority of the city of Newark for 25 years.

In another troubling case, earlier this week Newark Police Capt. Ralph Boswell, while awaiting trial on claims that he groped an officer under his supervision, was charged with sexually assaulting a woman in the back of his patrol car while on duty in early February. Under standards for certification, it could be required that an officer on trial for misconduct, such as Boswell, be placed in an administrative position until the trial concluded. Instead, Boswell was promoted in January, despite the charges against him, and he now stands accused by a second person of sexual assault.

Considering our history with police misconduct in New Jersey, one would think that our state would lead the nation in systems for police accountability. Rather, New Jersey lags behind 43 states that already have agencies, typically called peace officer standards and training boards, tolicense law enforcement professionals, and revoke licenses when necessary.Officers must be certified according to board standards to be eligible for hire.

By licensing police officers -- the most immediately powerful agents of the state -- we protect citizens, promote standards of professionalism and address the all- too-common problem of police officers who are terminated from one department for misconduct getting a job in another town in the same state, only to commit misdeeds against another community.

The number and type of revocations in other states also point to the need for a licensing and decertification system here. For example, in 1999, Florida decertified 186 corrections officers and 120 law enforcement officers. A review of all Florida decertifications in a seven- year period showed the vast majority involved sexual misconduct. The same is true of the decertifications in other states. We have a centralized system for registering sex offenders; shouldn't we have similar systems for police officers who commit sex offenses?

There's wide variation among the 43 states in terms of what type of misconduct can trigger decertification. In about half, only a criminal conviction is grounds for decertification, with some states decertifying only for felonies, with others also decertifying for certain misdemeanors, typically involving moral turpitude. In the other states, decertification can occur even in the absence of a criminal conviction, for example, gross misconduct showing an inability to be a police officer, or specified misconduct that doesn't result in a conviction, like domestic violence or drug use.

It is important to respect employee privacy and due process rights in crafting systems for decertification. Hearings on decertification are typically before administrative law judges, and the accused is entitled to legal counsel. Sanctions can range from reprimand to permanent loss of license, and the standard of proof is either a preponderance of the evidence or clear and convincing evidence. New Jersey can look to Florida and Arizona for excellent decertification laws that respect the rights of the officers accused while protecting the public.

The time has come for New Jersey to take police professionalism seriously. Decertification systems work because they provide protection for all New Jerseyans, permanently removing an abusive officer's state license and preventing him from being rehired, at least within the same state. We need a strong decertification bill introduced in Trenton, and it should have support from all law enforcement organizations that care about the standards for professionalism in policing and public confidence in police officers.

- Deborah Jacobs is executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

Cop who killed his lover, unborn child was not stripped of powers for a year
Image: Bobby Cutts, Jr.
Bob Rossiter / AP
Bobby Cutts Jr., who killed his lover and their unborn child while he was still a police officer, in Canton, Ohio, during his trial in February, 2008. He was one of 10 officers convicted in the past five years that the AP found still had the authority to make an arrest or carry a gun.


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Jurors recommend life for ex-cop
Feb. 27: Jurors recommend life in prison for Bobby Cutts Jr., the former police officer convicted of killing his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn daughter. Watch the verdict and coverage from MSNBC's Contessa Brewer and Susan Filan.

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updated 4:07 a.m. ET, Mon., March. 23, 2009

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Bobby Cutts Jr. was notorious in the law enforcement community because of his crime: While still a police officer, he killed his lover and their unborn child.

Stripping him of his police powers should have been routine. But the state didn't begin the process until The Associated Press asked about his status.

Cutts was one of 10 officers convicted in the past five years that the AP found still had the authority to make an arrest or carry a gun, at least on paper. The state now says it's taking a more aggressive approach to finding such convictions in hopes of catching the cases that fall through the cracks.

The Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy says it doesn't know how many convictions it misses but believes the number is small.

The agency also says the number doesn't matter.

"Law enforcement does not want the public to believe that any officer has an opportunity to be a police officer once they've been convicted of a crime," said Bob Fiatal, a liaison with federal police for the academy.

Ohio, with about 35,000 police officers, decertified 19 officers in 2007, the last year full data on all completed cases was available.

Under state law, police officers charged with serious crimes are decertified once they are convicted. Merely resigning or being fired does not mean an officer would lose his police powers. The crimes include murder, theft and robbery.

Difficult to find officers
Once the process begins it's a simple matter of paperwork. But it can be difficult finding those officers, with timing and the type of court sometimes complicating matters.

The state relies on courts to report convictions and tracks media reports of arrested officers. In the past, the academy asked prosecutors to verify a conviction if there wasn't official notice. Now the agency assigns investigators to verify the information themselves.

"We just can't dump on the courts on this thing," Fiatal said. "It's all law enforcement's responsibility to take care of our own."

But it's still unclear how Cutts slipped through the system.

Fiatal, until recently the academy's interim director, knew about the case from the day in June 2007 that Cutts was arrested in the slaying of Jesse Davis. Most police officers did.

But for whatever reason, that knowledge didn't transfer to decertification.

"I was aware of it. And I think the staff was even aware of it here," Fiatal said. "As to why there was no action taken on it, I can't respond."

Canton police Chief Dean McKimm says the department notified the state once Cutts resigned in 2007.

State law requires a judge who sentences a police officer to notify the clerk of courts of the conviction. The clerk must then tell the state.

But Cutts resigned before going to trial. That means he was no longer a police officer when sentenced last year by Judge Charles Brown of Stark County Common Pleas Court.

Brown noted that fact when asked whether he should have reported Cutts' conviction. He declined to comment further or to say whether he thought there was a problem with the law. "I'm a judge; I'm not a legislator," he said.

Cutts was convicted Feb. 15, 2008. He was decertified Feb. 2 of this year.

Reporting a problem
Another problem with the reporting system: Officers who commit crimes are often prosecuted by federal courts, which aren't bound by state laws. No federal law requires such reporting.

The state began decertifying six former officers convicted in federal courts after their cases were pointed out by the AP.

Those included former Zanesville police officers convicted of scheming to steal cocaine from a Columbus drug dealer and sell it in Zanesville, a city of 25,000 in eastern Ohio.

Zanesville police Chief Eric Lambes said his office called the training academy after Sean Beck and Trevor Fusner, both members of the city department, were arrested in 2007.

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Ex-cop sentenced to life in prison for murders

Beck, who pleaded guilty last year, has a hearing in April on his request to withdraw his plea. Fusner is serving a 6 1/2-year sentence.

"We don't want anybody to slip through the cracks and get hired by a department later on and find out that department hired somebody who shouldn't be a police officer," Lambes said.

James Bonini, clerk of the federal courts covering the southern half of Ohio, acknowledged the apparent problem created by differing state and federal requirements.

Since the federal courts prosecute relatively few police officers, it shouldn't be difficult to single out the cases and alert the state, said U.S. District Court Judge Edmund Sargus, who presided over the Zanesville drug case.

Cutts, 31, escaped a death sentence when a jury sentenced him to life with parole possible after 57 years. He has appealed his conviction.

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