WOODLYNNE, N.J. — He left one department after failing to meet its standards. At another, he racked up disciplinary infractions. He was fired from a third, yet succeeded in getting hired at another.
“Just as we license doctors, nurses and lawyers,” Grewal said, “we must ensure that all officers meet baseline standards of professionalism, and that officers who fail to meet those standards cannot be passed from one police department to another.” As the nation grapples with how to reform police forces, one problem is the lack of a mechanism for tracking officers who have been fired from or disciplined in one department and find work in another. “No one really knows how many wandering officers are on the streets nationwide,” said John Rappaport, the author of a Yale Law Journal study on the problem. Without the ability to decertify officers, he said, states like New Jersey rely “entirely on local agencies to make good hiring decisions.
His body camera footage, which was released to The Times last week after an open-records request, shows how the woman rambled about how her iPad was stolen, how social services had taken her children away and how she suffered from schizophrenia. More than once, she said she wanted to kill herself. New Jersey allows the police to use deadly force to prevent the escape of a fleeing suspect if an officer believes the person poses an “imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm.” When force is justified, the rules urge the “utmost restraint.”
A month later, the protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis swept across the nation. In Camden, New Jersey, the police marched shoulder to shoulder with demonstrators in a show of solidarity. Officers there then flagged Dubiel’s social media posts to Woodlynne Police. Just 24 at the time, he had an associate degree in criminal justice from Ocean County College and had already cycled through police departments in Seaside Heights, Galloway, Edgewater Park, and Union City. Some of the jobs were part time, but a pattern was emerging: He jumped from place to place. He left one department as storm clouds gathered.
But he also began racking up use-of-force reports in a department that was trying to reset its relationship with the community. In a two-year period, records show, Dubiel used force against 16 suspects — a higher-than-average tally, a former colleague said.
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