The New Jersey Office of the Attorney General has ordered an investigation to determine of New Jersey State Police troopers are engaged in a slowdown of traffic stops.

It is alleged that this is an intentional reaction to a state report critical of the troopers. Specifically, that report stated that troopers were pulling over a disproportionate amount of minority drivers.

Although the New Jersey attorney general ordered the investigation, to avoid any conflict of interest, former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has been hired to lead the investigation.

The slowdown was allegedly taking place over eight months from July 2023 until March 2024.

“I am particularly concerned that this slowdown may have coincided with increased crashes and fatalities on our roadways,” Attorney General Matt Platkin wrote in a statement.

The slowdown is believed linked to a report that reviewed 6 million traffic stops from 2009 to 2021. It showed Black and Latino motorists were more likely to be stopped, searched and asked to get out of their cars. Searches of their vehicles were less likely to lead to evidence.

The NAACP has known about this data from the state comptroller for over a year. The organization has called on State Police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan to step down.

Gregg Zeff is a civil rights attorney and an attorney for the NAACP New Jersey.

“The state police are not appropriately training or keeping statistics on who they are stopping or why they are stopping them. And it appears to be going on again and again,” Zeff says.

He says it is about time these studies undertaken by the state are being taken seriously.

Racial profiling was supposed to be eradicated from the New Jersey State Police years ago. It was in 1999 that the state police and the Department of Justice entered into a consent decree to address racially motivated traffic stops.

It followed a 1998 shooting of four men along the New Jersey Turnpike by Trooper John Hogan and Trooper James Kenna. As part of a plea agreement, both pleaded guilty to official misconduct and providing false information about their traffic stops.

The question going forward is - was the slowdown ordered and by whom? Platkin says he wants to see it never happen again.

Bharara said he will conduct a fair investigation with a thorough accounting of the facts.

News 12 New Jersey did reach out to the troopers union for a comment but did not receive a response.