PATERSON PRESS

Paterson police internal affairs opens separate office, in effort to reassure public

3-minute read

Joe Malinconico
Paterson Press

PATERSON — New Jersey’s top law enforcement officer traveled to the city on June 13 to celebrate what he described as the latest reform effort at the Police Department: the relocation of its internal affairs division.

In terms of actual distance, the IA unit moved only three blocks, from police headquarters at 111 Broadway to a downtown office building at 100 Hamilton Plaza.

But social justice activists long have asserted that police headquarters is not a comfortable place for for people who are filing complaints against cops.

“By moving to this new location, we ensure that witnesses and complainants feel comfortable coming forward, a step that community members requested during initial listening sessions,” said Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who seized control of the city’s police operations 27 months ago.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin speaks at the opening of new offices for the Paterson Police Internal Affiars division on June 13, 2025.

Patrick Murray, the current state-appointed officer in charge of the Paterson Police Department, said the IA move was “more than a change in address.”

“It’s a change in philosophy,” Murray said.

The detectives in IA — whose job essentially is to police other police officers — started working at the new office in May. The department is spending $100,000 per year to lease offices on the building’s sixth floor, said spokesperson Robert Rowan.

State officials said the success of the state intervention is reflected in the Paterson Police Department’s annual IA report for 2024, which showed that the rate of sustained complaints had increased from 20% in 2023 to 45%. Meanwhile, the number of complaints filed against officers by community members dropped from 117 in 2023 to 67 in 2024.

“There’s no reform effort in this country that looks like Paterson,” Platkin proclaimed.

The duration of the state takeover remains uncertain. The New Jersey Supreme Court at the end of March heard oral arguments in a lawsuit seeking to end the attorney general's intervention; that case was filed by Mayor Andre Sayegh, Paterson’s ousted police chief Engelbert Ribeiro and assistant public safety director Mark Bulur. But no decision has been issued yet.

Sayegh on June 13 said his administration had been trying for several years to relocate the IA division.

“I’m very encouraged that our efforts have finally come to fruition," the mayor said.

The building where IA moved has also housed the offices of the Paterson Healing Collective anti-violence group for the past five years. In 2023, when police officers fatally shot Healing Collective employee Najee Seabrooks after a five-hour standoff, members of the group demanded change in the Paterson Police Department.

Platkin took control several weeks after Seabrooks’ death.

Longtime Paterson community activist Casey Melvin said he thought moving IA was a good idea.

“I agreed that the separation of the department's location to non-law enforcement locations does make it more inviting and less intimidating,” said Melvin, who is running for the City Council next year and has worked at the Healing Collective since the group was formed.

Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: editor@patersonpress.com