Internal Affairs

The members of the Highlands Police Department are committed to providing law enforcement services that are fair, effective, and impartially applied. It is in the best interest of everyone that a complaint about the performance of an individual officer is resolved fairly and promptly. The Highlands Police Department has formal procedures for investigating internal affairs complaints. These procedures ensure fairness and protect the rights of both citizens and law enforcement officers. Internal affairs investigations are considered as important to our agency as any criminal investigation.

The goal of internal affairs is to insure that the integrity of the department is maintained through a system of internal discipline where fairness and justice are ensured by an objective and impartial investigation and review.

Internal affairs has the obligation to investigate or review any allegation of employee misconduct that is a potential violation of our rules and regulations or which indicates that the employee is unable, unwilling or unfit to perform her/his duties. The obligation to investigate includes not only acts of misconduct that alleged to have occurred while the subject officer was on-duty, but also acts of misconduct that are alleged to have occurred outside of our jurisdiction or while the subject officer was off-duty.

All complaints of officer misconduct shall be accepted from all persons who wish to file a complaint regardless of the hour of the day or day of the week. Internal affairs personnel, if available will accept reports of officer misconduct, and if no supervisory personnel are available, the senior law enforcement officer on duty shall accept the complaint.

Every complaint will be sent to a superior officer or a specially trained internal affairs officer who will conduct a thorough and objective investigation.

You may be asked to help in the investigation by giving a detailed statement about what happened or providing other important information.

All complaints against law enforcement officers are thoroughly investigated. You will be advised in writing of the outcome of the investigation.

If our investigation shows that a crime may have been committed, the county prosecutor’s office will be notified. You may be asked to testify in court.

If our investigation shows that the complaint is unfounded or that the officer acted properly, the matter will be closed.

All disciplinary hearings will be closed to the public unless the defendant officer requests an open hearing.

It is unlawful to provide information in an internal affairs matter, which you do not believe to be true.

Although you may file an internal affairs complaint at anytime you may contact Chief Blewett, Capt. Clagett or Lt. Armenti at 732-872-1158 with any questions or concerns.