The credit-card size documents are known by many names: police courtesy cards, gold cards or family cards. They are distributed by law enforcement officers and their unions to a favored few and are flashed by drivers hoping for leniency when stopped for traffic violations.
The arrangement has long been part of a largely unspoken code.
But a report released Wednesday by a New Jersey government watchdog has for the first time pierced a well-guarded veil of secrecy around the cards and the surprising scope of their power.
The report grew out of an analysis of 50 hours of video footage from body-worn cameras during traffic stops made by New Jersey State Police troopers in December 2022. It found a “two-tiered system of justice” with differing treatment for those with law enforcement connections and for those without.
“A lot of what we saw was really brazen and obvious,” said Kevin Walsh, New Jersey’s acting comptroller, who conducted the study. “Drivers thought they would be treated with deference once they showed that they were part of the club.”
In most cases, the cards worked.
More than a quarter of the 501 motorists who drove off without receiving tickets after being pulled over by a State Police trooper during a 10-day period either flashed a courtesy card or told the officer that they knew someone in law enforcement, the investigation found.
The phenomenon is not unique to New Jersey. The cards are common in many states, including New York, where a New York Police Department officer was awarded $175,000 in a legal settlement this year after he said he was punished for refusing to give a break to a driver who showed him a courtesy card.
But videos of recorded exchanges released Wednesday by the comptroller’s office show that in New Jersey the courtesy can extend even to drivers in high-speed pursuits and to drivers who admit to having had a couple of drinks.
“Do you realize we were behind you probably for, like, five miles?” an unidentified trooper asks a driver stopped for speeding in one recorded exchange.
“You’re putting your life at risk,” the trooper said. “I’m chasing you, putting my life at risk — driving 95 miles an hour, weaving through traffic — just to get to you.”
“How much have you had to drink?” he adds.
“Not a lot at all,” the driver responds, adding, “Maybe two glasses.”
According to body-camera footage, the trooper then goes off to call the person who the driver claimed had given him the gold courtesy card that was proffered. The officer returns quickly.
“If you didn’t have this, we’d be going a whole different way,” he explains before adding, “Get out of here. Don’t let me catch you on my highway again.”
A spokesman for the State Police superintendent, Col. Patrick J. Callahan, could not be immediately reached for comment. Union leaders were also not immediately available for comment.
The release of the comptroller’s report comes as the conduct of New Jersey State Police troopers is already under intense scrutiny.
The 10-day period evaluated by the comptroller’s office was roughly six months before State Police troopers suddenly began stopping far fewer cars altogether.
Between July 2023 and March 2024, tickets for speeding, drunken driving, cellphone use and other violations plummeted by 61 percent statewide, data obtained by The New York Times show.
Last week, the state attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, appointed Preet Bharara, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to lead a criminal investigation into the drastic decline in traffic stops by State Police troopers.
The slowdown in enforcement coincided with an almost immediate uptick in crashes on the state’s two main highways, according to State Police traffic reports and data reported monthly to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. New Jersey’s traffic fatalities have since climbed by about 16 percent this year, compared with the same period in 2023.
The sharp downturn in summonses began a week after Mr. Platkin released a report that found glaring racial disparities in road safety enforcement. (That report was unrelated to the analysis released on Wednesday.)
In 2019, Gov. Philip D. Murphy signed a law that prohibits the distribution of badges to people who are not police officers. Mr. Walsh’s office has suggested that the State Legislature consider adjusting the law to also preclude the distribution of police courtesy cards, as California has done.
“Some officers are put in a difficult spot because they are expected to go along with these unwritten rules about how police officers are supposed to treat people within law enforcement,” Mr. Walsh said.
“Police officers who want to do the right thing welcome the opportunity to be told that they have to do the right thing, because it makes their jobs a lot easier,” he added.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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