New Jersey’s attorney general announced on Wednesday that he had enlisted Preet Bharara, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor, to lead a criminal investigation into a protracted slowdown in traffic enforcement by State Police troopers.
Mr. Bharara will serve as special counsel with “full authority” over an already active investigation into an eight-month reduction in traffic-safety enforcement by the State Police, the attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, said.
Between July 2023 and March 2024, tickets for speeding, drunken driving, cellphone use and other violations plummeted by 61 percent on the state’s busiest highways and rural back roads, data obtained by The New York Times show.
The slowdown coincided with an almost immediate uptick in crashes on the state’s two main highways, according to State Police traffic reports and data reported monthly to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. New Jersey’s traffic fatalities have since climbed by about 16 percent this year, compared with the same period in 2023, even as roadway deaths are going down in most other parts of the United States.
The sharp downturn in summonses and stops began a week after Mr. Platkin released a report that found glaring racial disparities in road safety enforcement. The analysis evaluated more than a decade’s worth of State Police traffic stops and concluded that troopers “were engaged in enforcement practices that result in adverse treatment toward minority motorists.”
Soon after, troopers were warned by their union president, Wayne D. Blanchard, about the “perils of motor vehicle stops” and advised to “be safe and protect yourself and your fellow troopers.”
“It appears increasingly likely you may be considered guilty until proven innocent by entities with questionable agendas,” Trooper Blanchard added in an internal memo sent to members of the State Troopers Fraternal Association.
Troopers statewide wrote just 690 speeding tickets in August 2023, down from the 5,343 summonses issued in August the year before. Drunken driving summonses dropped to 231, from 496.
On the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, the state’s main highways, crashes increased by 27 percent in August 2023 as tickets for speeding dropped to 437, down from 2,066 the year before. The number of accidents increased, year over year, for six of the next seven months.
Union leaders said top commanders at the State Police supported the troopers’ response to the traffic stop report. After productivity lagged, the superintendent, Col. Patrick J. Callahan, said that he visited stations and appeared at supervisor training sessions to “boost morale” and address concerns.
A State Police spokesman said that Colonel Callahan’s visits indicated that “he did not endorse any decrease in traffic enforcement.”
Mr. Bharara, a partner at a well-connected law firm based in New York, became known for cracking down on political corruption as the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. He led the office for nearly nine years before being fired by former President Donald J. Trump in 2017.
The decision by Mr. Platkin to bring on such prominent, out-of-state legal counsel to assist in the investigation of New Jersey’s largest police force is likely to further strain his relationship with the Democratic governor, Philip D. Murphy, a onetime close ally.
After the July 2023 traffic stop analysis became public, a series of additional independent reports and lawsuits critical of State Police commanders only intensified the tension between its leaders and Mr. Platkin, who, as attorney general, has authority over every law enforcement agency in the state.
Mr. Platkin said that he had made the decision to bring on an independent special counsel because of the “regular and substantial operational involvement between my office and the State Police.”
“I have ordered a full investigation into how this slowdown was orchestrated, which will ensure both accountability for those involved while also protecting against such conduct occurring again in the future,” Mr. Platkin said in a statement.
Mr. Murphy’s office said last week that the governor considered public safety “an issue of utmost seriousness,” and that he remained confident in State Police leadership and in Mr. Platkin.
The attorney general’s office appears to have been investigating the slowdown since at least March, when the Department of Law and Public Safety issued a request for proposals for a sophisticated traffic-data analysis.
One goal of the study, according to the document, which was obtained through a records request, would be to “assess the effects, if any, of changes in traffic stop activity, on motor vehicle accidents, fatal motor vehicle accidents, average driver speeds and frequency of excessive speeding on highways compared to prior periods.”
Since leaving the U.S. attorney post, Mr. Bharara has hosted two podcasts and with his brother built a podcast company, Cafe Studios, which Vox Media bought last year for an undisclosed amount. He has also written a best seller, “Doing Justice,” about his tenure as U.S. attorney; appeared on CNN as a legal analyst; and taught at New York University School of Law. In 2022, he joined WilmerHale as a partner.
“I am deeply honored by the confidence placed in me to conduct a fair and rigorous investigation on behalf of the people of New Jersey, who deserve a thorough accounting of the facts,” Mr. Bharara said in a statement.
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