Letters to the editor
Monday, November 14, 2005
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Defending actions of state troopers I read with great dismay an opinion piece written by Aref Assaf, President of the American Arab Forum, that appeared in the Herald News on Sunday, Nov. 6. While Mr. Assaf shares my own deep concern about civil rights for Arab Americans, as well as for all the citizens of this state, the piece contained a very serious error that demands clarification and correction to the readership of this newspaper. Mr. Assaf writes: "...the recent allegation that the state police, through its Office of Counterterrorism, has specifically targeted new state residents who are Muslim solely because of their religious affiliations. The state police admitted that it has racially profiled Muslims." No part of this statement bears any truth. First, the Office of Counterterrorism is separate and distinct from the Division of State Police and is located within the Office of the Attorney General. Its existence and authority is established from the Governor's Executive Order 33, most recently superceded by Executive Order 57. Secondly, as widely reported in the media, the state police raised a genuine concern to the New Jersey Attorney General when well over 100 reports submitted by the Office of Counterterrorism (O.C.T.) to our intelligence database identified individuals and groups without the specific and required relationship to criminal activity. None of these reports were authored by a state trooper assigned to O.C.T. To be clear on this point: There were no intelligence report errors by troopers. There were no allegations against troopers. Since the submission of those reports, and at the direction of the Attorney General, personnel from the Office of Counterterrorism have received training commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice on adhering to federal reporting requirements in intelligence databases. We support this training, as we continue to support the mission of the Office of Counterterrorism in the proper conduct of investigations concerning threats to New Jersey. The citizens of this state should expect no less from our two agencies. An allegation of racial profiling raises a dangerous specter in the state police, in the minds of every hard-working trooper, and to me, personally. Our organization has worked very hard to develop and implement clearly defined protocols with strict managerial safeguards that protect both the public and the troopers. Bolstered by advances in technology, the New Jersey State Police is now viewed as a national model for the manner in which we conduct motor vehicle stops, use of force situations and consent searches as well as for our academy training and internal investigations. As further evidence, I kindly refer you to the semiannual reports submitted by the independent monitoring team working for the U.S. Department of Justice. Those reports can be accessed through the New Jersey Attorney General's web site. The state police prides itself on its relationship with the community. In fact, there is a Community Partnership Troop within our operations branch that fosters this relationship on a daily basis. The troop commander, Maj. Wendy Galloway, is well known to many Arab American organizations in this state, and works very hard on my behalf to ensure an open line of communication with the Muslim community. I cannot permit some erroneous statements to undermine that longstanding and trusting relationship. I thank the editors of the Herald News for this opportunity to respond. Col. Joseph R. Fuentes, superintendent, New Jersey State Police | 
