The Hackensack Police Department is a poorly led agency whose senior officers focus more on lining their pockets with overtime pay than performing actual police work, concludes a scathing report by a former Bergen County chief whom the city hired to review the department.
Written by Robert Anzilotti, the retired chief of the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, the report paints a particularly damning portrait of Hackensack's officer-in-charge, Capt. Darrin DeWitt. Although it never mentions DeWitt by name, the report said he and other ranking officers are "some of the highest earners related to unscheduled overtime, compensatory time, and extra duty traffic details."
Meanwhile, morale has cratered among the department's rank-and-file, arrests have plummeted by 85% in the last eight years and city detectives boast a clearance rate of just 11%, the report said.
Anzilotti advised city officials to hire an outside police director to run the department because those now in command "seem more focused on enhancing their own compensation."
"This assessment has revealed that the current culture within the Hackensack Police Department is not at the point where any particular individual can assume command and return it to a proactive, professional and evidence-based police organization," Anzilotti wrote.
The report is the latest in a series of calamities for the 107-officer force, which for the last 15 years has been besieged by controversies, lawsuits, infighting, administrative complaints and officer arrests.
Mayor John Labrosse declined to comment Friday. Dewitt, the officer-in-charge, did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
But in a statement accompanying the report, Hackensack City Manager Vincent Caruso said he was "troubled" by the findings.
"As public servants, we are all held to a higher standard," Caruso said. "Those standards simply weren't met by the HPD in recent years. The City of Hackensack is committed to solving these systemic problems and making sure that our police department is fully accountable to the residents, and there will be major changes to meet that goal ."
City officials pointed to their recent decision to hire as police director retired New Jersey State Police Lt. Col. Ray Guidetti as proof that they plan to address the agency's shortcomings.
"I understand the challenges ahead of us and I am confident we can get back on the right track," Guidetti said in the statement. "I will use all of my knowledge and experience to instill leadership and accountability throughout the department and refocus our officers' dedication to public safety."
'Meet the Easter Bunny' overtime
City officials contracted Anzilotti's law enforcement consulting firm to review the department in December 2021. The six-month assessment found Hackensack officers lacked the accountability they once had.
The brass has not prioritized weekly command meetings, and DeWitt has not held a departmental meeting since he took over more than a year ago, the report said.
The agency also abandoned its practice of filing individual attendance sheets, which Anzilotti said would have made it easy to spot officers who might be misusing their time off.
The report blamed these lapses on an internal police culture that seems to prioritize overtime and traffic details, he said.
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Anzilotti pointed to soaring overtime costs as proof.
In 2021, Hackensack officers worked more than 9,100 overtime hours that cost the city nearly $926,000. In addition, officers were paid more than $1.8 million for extra-duty traffic details, which the report said represented a 115% increase since 2016.
Department leaders cited a manpower shortage as the primary reason for the runaway payments, Anzilotti said. But many of the overtime hours were scheduled for pre-planned events such as training, school graduations, the national night out and a "Meet the Easter Bunny" event.
"Much of this overtime could be limited by improved planning," the report said. "The explanations for overtime being generated by ranking personnel do not reflect a mindset of careful financial management."
Anzilotti said this shift hurts public safety, fatigues the officers and erodes their faith in their leaders. Especially when the ranking officers — including DeWitt — are earning the most extra cash.
"Setting this example has an adverse impact throughout the department," the report said. "When the desire to increase compensation through these methods begins to interfere with the core mission of public safety, this can not just impact the public's safety but can impact the personal safety of personnel as they attempt to balance normal duty time with extra-duty traffic details and overtime assignments."
The numbers prove the department's priorities, the report said.
While calls for service remained stable, overtime costs have soared by about 25% each year. Meanwhile, the number of arrests dropped dramatically, plummeting 85% between 2014 and 2021, according to the report.
"Departmental leadership throughout this time period ... has focused less on everyday police work and more on the ability to generate overtime and work extra-duty traffic details," Anzilotti wrote.
This interfered with staffing and productivity in almost every part of the department, including the patrol, detective and traffic divisions.
Eventually, the city should fill the chief's position with an officer who rose through the ranks, Anzilotti said. But he could not find such a candidate.
"The existing culture does not appear capable of developing leaders from within," he wrote. "Not one member of the command staff interviewed offered any suggestion for change other than to restore the position of police chief ... there was no credible vision to move the department forward."
The report recommended hiring a police director to oversee the department and reorient the force to community policing and public safety, provide much-needed leadership and accountability and mentor officers beneath them.
"While things must fundamentally change, none of this will occur in a vacuum," Anzilotti wrote. "It will require significant effort and attention from the police director and command staff."
Staff Writer Nicholas Katzban contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Hackensack NJ police brass grab overtime pay as arrests dive