Post by Scumhunter on Nov 20, 2015 17:33:10 GMT -5
As a state in the tri-state area, right next to New York State, home to New York City, you would think New Jersey would have a pretty detailed fugitive listing on their perspective most wanted lists. Yet surprisingly, when as the admin of a fugitive forum when I go to research cases, I have to pretty much find everything out via articles, court documents, etc.
I realize other states have this problem but considering the population of the state I feel this is a problem. And before you say maybe it's just me, there was an article that came out a year ago about the lack of updates on a few New Jersey county wanted lists.
www.northjersey.com/news/bergen-passaic-most-wanted-lists-need-updates-access-1.1298237
Part of it reads:
"The faces on the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office list are years — in some cases, decades — old. And the information provided with the mug shots is scant at best and sometimes mysterious — in one case, it adds a Korean phrase to one fugitive’s last name.
The Bergen County Sheriff’s Office list has its problems, too. Besides lacking details, it still highlights two fugitives, even though they’ve been apprehended."
The Passaic County Sheriff's Office hasn't been online for two years:
"The Passaic Sheriff’s Office keeps a different kind of “most wanted” list. Eight of its 11 fugitives are wanted for non-violent crimes like unpaid child support, credit card fraud and drug possession, compared to the mostly violent crimes listed in Bergen.
Because the department is in the process of updating its website, Passaic sheriff’s spokesman William Maer said, its list has been off-line for about two years and is currently used for “internal law enforcement issues.”
“The PCSO shares this list with law enforcement, and it will soon be on the department’s newly redone Web page,” Sheriff Richard Berdnik said in a statement."
(There is still no list publicly on their website)
I feel these issues aren't just limited to Bergen and Passaic, however.
Newark, a city with a history of crime problems- has a most wanted list- but all they list are the crimes the fugitive is charged with- you have to go google the names to see if there's any articles on them:
www.newarkpdonline.org/wanted/npdmostwanted.php
In addition the New Jersey State Police Most Wanted site's only fugitives with a lot of info of them are only because they've been on America's Most Wanted (John Schlump, Welder Dubon, Francisco Martinez), the ones that haven't- Juan Francisco Aguilon, Svetlanta Kay, and Marciano Sanchez have very little info besides their height weight and physical stats what they're accused of.
www.njsp.org/wanted/index.shtml
Another site lists New Jersey fugitives with a link to "press release" only to get a blank page when you click on those press releases-
www.nj.gov/oag/dcj/watch/index.htm
Compare this with the Massachusetts State Police Most Wanted list, which actually gives a nice summary of the crimes each fugitive is accused of:
www.mass.gov/eopss/law-enforce-and-cj/law-enforce/missing-and-wanted/most-wanted.html
Thoughts? I will say that I discovered how backwards NJ is when it comes to fugitives a year ago. I had a somewhat unrelated side project where I was helping someone confirm active warrants for fugitives all over the country. I called many police departments, court clerks, Prosecutor's Office etc pretty much on a volunteer basis. 95 percent of police departments were helpful. About 3-4 percent were matter of fact but not rude that they can't give out information (one court clerk in Texas was nasty but that's it).
However, NJ is the only place where I was not only treated rudely but like I asked for their mother's social security number. One point of contact I discovered of the counties I called in NJ grilled me about how I got his number. I felt going dude, I'm volunteering, and I'm trying to do something helpful, I'm not even getting paid to get grilled. (I also felt like going how'd I get your number? Because that was my "JOB"- to find a point of contact- I got your number because I'm good at research and that was the whole damn point. I also felt going do you realize you're like one of the only people out of 100 to give me a hard time). The city point of contact I found was also rude to me about not giving out information. We actually had to have the US MARSHALS confirm the case for us. That's really a last case scenario because although they obviously can and are helpful it would burn social capital to call them for every single fugitive. You don't want to call the big boys unless you absolutely have to. However, it does prove how awesome they are and I hope they yelled at whoever gave me a hard time for just trying to help.
Anyway, I won't name names, Trenton and Mercer County, New Jersey.
Anyway, is it just me, or do us fellow fugitive researchers agree that NJ does a really crappy job at keeping the public informed on its' fugitives?
I realize other states have this problem but considering the population of the state I feel this is a problem. And before you say maybe it's just me, there was an article that came out a year ago about the lack of updates on a few New Jersey county wanted lists.
www.northjersey.com/news/bergen-passaic-most-wanted-lists-need-updates-access-1.1298237
Part of it reads:
"The faces on the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office list are years — in some cases, decades — old. And the information provided with the mug shots is scant at best and sometimes mysterious — in one case, it adds a Korean phrase to one fugitive’s last name.
The Bergen County Sheriff’s Office list has its problems, too. Besides lacking details, it still highlights two fugitives, even though they’ve been apprehended."
The Passaic County Sheriff's Office hasn't been online for two years:
"The Passaic Sheriff’s Office keeps a different kind of “most wanted” list. Eight of its 11 fugitives are wanted for non-violent crimes like unpaid child support, credit card fraud and drug possession, compared to the mostly violent crimes listed in Bergen.
Because the department is in the process of updating its website, Passaic sheriff’s spokesman William Maer said, its list has been off-line for about two years and is currently used for “internal law enforcement issues.”
“The PCSO shares this list with law enforcement, and it will soon be on the department’s newly redone Web page,” Sheriff Richard Berdnik said in a statement."
(There is still no list publicly on their website)
I feel these issues aren't just limited to Bergen and Passaic, however.
Newark, a city with a history of crime problems- has a most wanted list- but all they list are the crimes the fugitive is charged with- you have to go google the names to see if there's any articles on them:
www.newarkpdonline.org/wanted/npdmostwanted.php
In addition the New Jersey State Police Most Wanted site's only fugitives with a lot of info of them are only because they've been on America's Most Wanted (John Schlump, Welder Dubon, Francisco Martinez), the ones that haven't- Juan Francisco Aguilon, Svetlanta Kay, and Marciano Sanchez have very little info besides their height weight and physical stats what they're accused of.
www.njsp.org/wanted/index.shtml
Another site lists New Jersey fugitives with a link to "press release" only to get a blank page when you click on those press releases-
www.nj.gov/oag/dcj/watch/index.htm
Compare this with the Massachusetts State Police Most Wanted list, which actually gives a nice summary of the crimes each fugitive is accused of:
www.mass.gov/eopss/law-enforce-and-cj/law-enforce/missing-and-wanted/most-wanted.html
Thoughts? I will say that I discovered how backwards NJ is when it comes to fugitives a year ago. I had a somewhat unrelated side project where I was helping someone confirm active warrants for fugitives all over the country. I called many police departments, court clerks, Prosecutor's Office etc pretty much on a volunteer basis. 95 percent of police departments were helpful. About 3-4 percent were matter of fact but not rude that they can't give out information (one court clerk in Texas was nasty but that's it).
However, NJ is the only place where I was not only treated rudely but like I asked for their mother's social security number. One point of contact I discovered of the counties I called in NJ grilled me about how I got his number. I felt going dude, I'm volunteering, and I'm trying to do something helpful, I'm not even getting paid to get grilled. (I also felt like going how'd I get your number? Because that was my "JOB"- to find a point of contact- I got your number because I'm good at research and that was the whole damn point. I also felt going do you realize you're like one of the only people out of 100 to give me a hard time). The city point of contact I found was also rude to me about not giving out information. We actually had to have the US MARSHALS confirm the case for us. That's really a last case scenario because although they obviously can and are helpful it would burn social capital to call them for every single fugitive. You don't want to call the big boys unless you absolutely have to. However, it does prove how awesome they are and I hope they yelled at whoever gave me a hard time for just trying to help.
Anyway, I won't name names, Trenton and Mercer County, New Jersey.Anyway, is it just me, or do us fellow fugitive researchers agree that NJ does a really crappy job at keeping the public informed on its' fugitives?