Internal Affairs

Our Internal Affairs Unit accepts and documents all citizen complaints against law enforcement personnel employed in Mercer County, as well as all citizen complaints against law enforcement personnel employed by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.

The Internal Affairs Unit is responsible for investigating allegations of criminal acts committed by police officers.  If a citizen’s complaint about a police officer does not rise to the level of a crime or there is insufficient evidence to prove a crime was committed, the complaint is referred back to the officer’s employer, the municipal police department, for an administrative investigation by the police department’s internal affairs unit.  If a police officer is found by his or her employer to have violated a department policy or rule during the administrative investigation, then the employer may discipline the officer.  However, discipline rests solely with a law enforcement officer’s employing agency.  The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office does not have the legal authority to impose administrative punishment on a municipal police officer.  See N.J.S.A. 40A-118; Borough of Stone Harbor v. Wildwood Local 59, Policemen’s Benev. Ass’n of New Jersey, 164 N.J. Super. 375 (App. Div. 1978); New Jersey Attorney General’s Internal Affairs Policy and Procedures, revised July 2014.

Any citizen wishing to file a complaint may do so by filling out the Citizen Complaint Form. A complaint may be submitted in person at our office Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at 209 South Broad Street, Third Floor, Trenton, NJ 08608. You can also submit your complaint by emailing the Internal Affairs Unit at mcpointernalaffairs@mercercounty.org.

To access the Citizen Complaint Form and Information Sheet in additional languages, click here.