The Salem County Prosecutor‘s Office has taken over operations of the Penns Grove Police Department, the agency said Tuesday.
While the prosecutor‘s office declined to give a reason for the move, Penns Grove Police Director Richard Rivera said the takeover is related to state licensing for the department’s police officers.
Four officers have been placed on desk duty because of problems with their licensing to work as police officers in New Jersey, Rivera said. That has left the department without enough officers on patrol.
“The prosecutor has been very helpful in this process, and we welcome that support,” Rivera said. “We simply don’t have the staffing to sustain the police department on our own.”
Under a law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in 2022, all New Jersey law enforcement officers must be licensed by the state Police Training Commission in order to work in the state.
A recent commission audit of the Penns Grove department revealed one officer wasn’t licensed and there were issues with the license of another officer, Rivera said.
The commission suspended licenses for two other officers as a result of the audit, Rivera said.
The license for one officer, who was hired last year, was suspended this month because he was previously fired from another New Jersey department where he was accused of falsifying a report, Rivera said.
The officer‘s appeal of his firing is still pending, Rivera said.
The borough saw no red flags when hiring any of the officers in question, Rivera said. The police director said he would support the officers in resolving the licensing issues.
“We wholeheartedly support our officers and we‘re gonna support them through this,” he said.
The officer without a license was already working for the Penns Grove department when the licensing requirement became law, Rivera said.
The police director said the fact that officer didn’t have a license was a technical issue, but Rivera expressed frustration about the lack of guidance from the commission on the matter.
“They don’t want to help us correct the paperwork, and they just basically said nothing,” Rivera said. “We don’t have any information from them. I don’t know what to do. So if we‘re making mistakes, we‘d like to correct them.”
The officers are entitled to an administrative hearing before the Police Training Commission, Rivera said.
The actions by the commission have left the department down four officers and unable to sustain 24-hour coverage of the borough, Rivera said.
“The Police Training Commission has shut us down, essentially,” he said. “If we have police officers that don’t have licenses, they can’t patrol the streets.”
He welcomed the intervention by the Salem County Prosecutor‘s Office.
Salem County Executive Assistant Prosecutor Jeffrey Barile declined to discuss the licensing issues raised by Rivera, but released a statement on behalf of Prosecutor Kristin Telsey describing the office‘s actions.
“While this is undeniably an extraordinary remedy, Prosecutor Telsey remains confident that the end result will be a stronger police department fortified with the support of county law enforcement working hand-in-hand with the Penns Grove governing body and each and every one of the dedicated law enforcement officers of that department,” Barile said.
Rivera said he supports licensing for cops, but not how the process has been handled.
“It’s to prevent bad officers from either being police wearing badges or from transferring from one agency to the next,” he said. “So, I wholeheartedly support the process. But what’s taken place is this process has been subverted. The agency that oversees it offers no guidance. They’ve preempted due process for officers.”
In response to questions about the Penns Grove situation, a spokesperson for the Police Training Commission confirmed that licenses for two officers were suspended.
“Officers with adverse actions taken on their police licenses have the right to appeal the suspension,” the spokesperson said.
Since the governor signed police licensing into law in 2022, the Police Training Commission has made training sessions available around the state for law enforcement leaders, prosecutors, municipalities and police unions to ensure licensing requirements are understood, the spokesperson said in a statement.
“Those presentations have reached in excess of 1,700 attendees in 2025 and thousands of additional officers in 2023 and 2024,” the official said. “In addition, the PTC has posted various forms, checklists, and guides to assist law enforcement agencies and officers in navigating the licensing process on its website and has made itself available to local law enforcement agencies to answer questions.”
Any agency or officer seeking assistance has been encouraged to contact the commission directly for help, the spokesperson said.
Stories by Matt Gray
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Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com.