At least 46 states paid for NJ Criminal Interdiction’s training services, or Street Cop. But these services don’t teach police how to protect the public. Here are three dangerous behaviors Street Cop actually encourages.
1 - Unconstitutional Traffic Stops
Street Cop’s instructors’ “Reasonable Suspicion” checklist criminalizes a supply of random behaviors to justify stops and searches — from licking your lips or tilting your head to refusing a search or having food wrappers on the floor of your car.
2 - Racism, Ableism, and Misogyny
Bigotry in these sessions is the rule, not the exception. Instructors call Black people monkeys, “joke” about Mexicans, and spread counter-terrorism propaganda. Misogyny, like objectifying sex workers and trafficking victims, and inappropriate sexual behavior during lessons is frequent.
Using ableist slurs, criminalizing people who ask officers to repeat themselves, and advising officers to experiment on injured suspects medically also takes place.
3 - Evading The Truth
This behavior often attracts bystanders wanting to intervene in police violence — or at least record it. So it’s unsurprising that Street Cop’s owner, Dennis Benigno, said people who film cops should “get pepper [sprayed], fucking tased, windows broken out, motherfucker.”
Targeted copaganda will claim police “just need more training.” But Street Cop isn’t a bad apple — it’s only training police to be even better at doing what they’re already oppressively doing.