These trainings are intended to discourage racial profiling and set the tone that misconduct is not tolerated. (File photo)
New Jersey officials had long discounted the growing evidence that racial profiling was a problem, until a now-infamous tragedy on the Turnpike: During a traffic stop in 1998, state troopers shot and seriously wounded a group of young Black and Hispanic men headed to an out-of-state basketball tryout. It sparked a massive political scandal, a federal investigation and a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice that compelled dozens of reforms intended to prevent racial profiling. This was serious stuff. So even after federal oversight ended in 2009, you’d think State Police and the Attor...
