Data Shows racial disparities in police use of force across New Jersey.

NJ Advance media Database provides hard evidence of racial disparities in police use of force across New Jersey.
Among the findings:

Black people are three times more likely to face some type of police force than whites.
In 68 cities and towns, black people were at least five times more likely to face force.  In Lakewood, they were an astounding 22 times more likely.  Lakewood Police Chief Gregory Meyer said he was surprised and concerned to see the numbers and planned to take action. Meyer, said he planned to talk to his captains and trainers about the data to see what could be changed. "We do a lot of diversity training here with our officers when they're new, because things are changing so quickly," Meyer said. "But if we're doing something poorly, we want to know about it."





The town of more than 100,000 is the fastest-growing in the state and a magnet for the predominantly white Orthodox Jewish community. The black community has shrunk from 12 percent of the population in 2000 to 4 percent in 2016. But black residents make up nearly 40 percent of the department's uses of force according to the report. see statistics on LPD use of force here