INTERNAL AFFAIRS COMPLAINTS (REFERRALS)

The Professional Responsibility Bureau of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office operates in accordance with the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General’s (OAG's) Guidelines on Internal Affairs Policy and Procedures (IAP&P). A copy of the guidelines can be found on the New Jersey Attorney General’s website.

Our Professional Responsibility Bureau accepts and documents all citizen complaints against law enforcement personnel employed in Monmouth County, as well as all citizen complaints against law-enforcement personnel employed by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.

The Professional Responsibility Bureau is responsible for investigating allegations of criminal acts committed by police officers. If a citizen’s complaint about a police officer does not rise to the level of a crime or there is insufficient evidence to prove a crime was committed, the complaint will likely be referred back to the officer’s employer, the municipal police department, for an administrative investigation by the police department’s internal affairs unit. If a police officer is found by his or her employer to have violated a department policy or rule during the administrative investigation, then the employer may discipline the officer. However, discipline rests solely with a law-enforcement officer’s employing agency. The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office does not have the legal authority to impose administrative punishment on a municipal police officer.

Any citizen wishing to file a complaint may do so by downloading and filling out the Citizen Complaint Form electronically and submitting it online through our website. Information about the process of making a complaint with this office may be found in the IAP&P Appendix A table below. The forms to file a citizen complaint can be found on the corresponding IAP&P Appendix B table below in both PDF and Word formats. You may also find a link to the Complaint Form as well as the standard civilian complaint information sheet in various languages by visiting the Attorney General’s website. A complaint may also be submitted in person Monday through Friday between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., at the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, located at 132 Jerseyville Avenue, Freehold, NJ, 07728; by fax at 732-431-1594; by emailing the Professional Responsibility Bureau at mcpopru@mcponj.org; or by telephone at 732-431-7160.

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The 4 A’s of Internal Affairs

  • ANYONE:

Any individual must be permitted to file an Internal Affairs complaint. It can be a victim, a friend of the victim, a parent, a juvenile (with or without parents), an undocumented immigrant (we are not permitted to ask about immigration status) or it can be anonymous. ANYONE means ANYONE.

  • ANY WAY:

An Internal Affairs complaint can be filed in ANY WAY. It could be filed by phone, by letter, written on a napkin, in person… Whatever is best for the person filing. We cannot make someone show up in person or swear the statement to initiate the complaint process.

  • ANY TIME:

A complaint must be taken regardless of the hour or day of the week. At no time should a complainant be told to return later, even if the IA officer is unavailable. ANY law enforcement officer or civilian employee must take a complaint.

  • ANYTHING:

All complaints received are investigated if the complaint contains sufficient factual information to warrant an investigation.

* * * LAW ENFORCEMENT MUST AVOID ANY LANGUAGE THAT IS DESIGNED TO DISSUADE SOMEBODY FROM FILING A COMPLAINT.