ACLU: Ridgewood Taking Steps to Correct Mistake on Police Abuse Complaint Laws

The village police department was one of many called by ACLU volunteers asking if citizens could anonymously report alleged police abuse.

"Ridgewood was not perfect but I would say they were as perfect as you can be without getting it all right," NJ ACLU's Alex Shalom told Patch.

The volunteer asked if complaints could be filed by telephone, anonymously, through a third party, by a juvenile or an undocumented immigrant without fear of reprisal.

"The third question, could the complaint be filed through a third party, was answered by the officer that it could not be," Shalom said. "But he also said it doesn't matter if it's done through a third party because it can be answered over the phone." 

Ward said he was concerned one of his officers did not nail the questions entirely. "It's a teachable moment," he said. "I – we – take this very seriously. We've put greater emphasis on training and will continue to do so."

Shalom agreed Ridgewood was taking the right steps to correct its mistake.

"There were some departments that got no questions correct, Ridgewood came very close to getting them all correct," he said. "Most importantly, very soon after the report came out Chief Ward reached out to me to say I want to know what we did wrong, and I want to fix it. That shows a commitment on his part to ensuring citizen access to internal affairs."