Ocean Twp. Police Sent Officers To Controversial Street Cop Training

OCEAN TOWNSHIP, NJ — The Ocean Twp. Police Department is one of dozens of law enforcement agencies across the state that sent officers to a controversial police training in 2021, now being investigated by the state of New Jersey.

This was the Street Cop Training, a six-day training held in October 2021 in Atlantic City. There, trainers talked about:

• Deliberately inflicting pain on people they arrest — "It's just another thing we can harness and leverage as a weapon," said one trainer.
• "The ambulance can take care of them," said another.
• One trainer talked about "eye-f******" female drivers.
• And another trainer used a meme of a monkey while describing a motor vehicle stop of a 75-year-old African-American man in Trenton.

A spokesman for the Ocean Twp. Police Department said Police Chief Sorrentino had no comment, as the training is currently being investigated by the state.

The training was unveiled in this scathing report released Dec. 6 by the Office of the State Comptroller. The state investigated the training, and the fact that NJ police departments spent taxpayer money and used paid time off to send officers to it. Read the full report here.

Also, the state Comptroller released videos secretly taken during the training, all of which can be seen here (WARNING: Videos contain explicit language).

The training was given by Street Cop Training, a privately owned company headquartered in East Windsor that provides law enforcement training. The state Comptroller said it was tipped off about the training.

"(We) received information that public dollars were wasted on police training that taught questionable tactics and contained offensive and discriminatory content. The training taught unconstitutional policing tactics, glorified violence, denigrated women and minorities and likely violated a myriad of state laws."

"Street Cop claims to be one of the country's largest, if not the largest, private police training companies," said the NJ comptroller. "Private, post-academy police training is virtually unregulated, with no government oversight. Street Cop said this conference was 'standard fare' and estimated that the organization trained about 2,000 New Jersey officers a year."

On Dec. 12, six days after the Comptroller released its report, Street Cop Training founder Dennis Benigno released this apology on YouTube, where he also said he wanted "to tell our side of the story."

"We tried to work cooperatively with the OSC on this report, but that was not part of the agency's agenda ... I personally take responsibility and apologize for any inappropriate or offensive language that was used by a few of our instructors," Benigno said. "We don't want that type of incident ever happening again."

However, he also said the comptroller’s office is wrong about several of its claims, including the assertion that the training may have violated the U.S. Constitution.

Nearly 1,000 police officers from across the U.S. attended the conference, including 240 from New Jersey. None of the attending officers ever formally complained about what was said, although someone did secretly contact the state Comptroller.

Some of what was said at the training:

“We don't like treating turds, right?” one instructor tells the audience. “You’re like, ‘Ah, f*** ‘em. The ambulance can take care of them.’ Right?”

“Understanding pain, both physically and physiologically, it’s important,” another trainer encourages. “When we understand what it does and how, what purpose it serves, it's just another thing that we can harness and that we can leverage as a weapon.”

One instructor showed a meme of a monkey after describing a motor vehicle stop of a “75-year-old black man coming out of Trenton.”

Another trainer said: “I love what the f*** I do for a living. There's nothing else I'm good at. I love violence. I love fighting. I love shooting. And I f****** love freedom. It wasn't that long ago that we were drinking out of the skulls of our enemies. Like, you know, like I'm gonna f****** murder this guy … Then I’m gonna take his head, then I’m gonna cut his head in half. And then I'm gonna boil his skull, and then I’m gonna drink out of that skull. F****** rad, right?” (Watch the video here)

“I'm not talking about the guy who's f****** recording you like, ‘I am not a citizen of the United States, and the f****** act twelve-six’ … Shut the f*** up, right? About to get pepper-sprayed, f****** tased, windows broken out, mother*****.”

Said another trainer:

“The next person that challenges you about how we need to keep ‘reimagining’ [policing]?’ Ask he or she, him, her – she, him, whatever the f*** you want to call people now.” (Watch the video here)

The training also taught policing tactics that likely violate the U.S. Constitution, said the state of New Jersey.

One trainer encouraged attendees to: “Have a day where you go out and go, ‘I’m just gonna pull over 20 people in a row for the sole purpose of asking a series of questions. And make up your own questions. Something as simple as ‘Hey, how you doing? Where you come from? Hey, where you going?’ Be real friendly about it and stuff, and just see how people answer the questions. You will learn general baseline. And then when you ask somebody a question, and the answers are just weird, you'll be so much better at picking up on it.” (Watch the video here)

On women, one law enforcement instructor said:

“I watched this car come off the highway and I eye-f***** the s*** out the female driver. She doesn't want to f*** me back, though — it’s gonna be the sneaky peek.”

Another trainer mimicked a Middle Eastern accent as he imitates someone talking: “Everything is a business, even how we get married.” Another used a meme of a monkey after describing a motor vehicle stop of a “75-year-old black man coming out of Trenton.”

Some of the instructors joked about the sizes of their genitals, with one of them telling attendees that he would be “remiss if I didn’t let you know that I have a three-inch d***.”

Benigno himself talked about wanting to die with prostitutes and cocaine instead of having a “hero’s exit.”

“Like, I’m on vacation in Colombia … and these girls, like, are not as wealthy, and they need to do things to make money,” he quipped, getting a laugh from the audience.

NJ police chiefs, NJ Attorney General responds

Street Cop Training annually conducts 40 to 45 courses in New Jersey, training more than 2,000 New Jersey state and local law enforcement officers every year.

“The fact that the training undermined nearly a decade of police reforms — and New Jersey dollars paid for it — is outrageous,” said Acting NJ Comptroller Kevin Walsh.

Some police departments have already begun doing damage control, as fall-out from the comptroller report continues. “The teachings at the conference were shameful and indefensible,” Cherry Hill Police Chief Robert Kempf told the New Jersey Monitor this December.

NJ Attorney General Matt Platkin said he was made aware in late March 2023 of some of the things said at the training. He immediately ordered State Police to stop attending Street Cop Trainings.

"New Jersey’s law enforcement agencies should not be paying for their members to attend training provided by this vendor," said an AG spokesman. "From that point forward no approvals or reimbursements were made by the state for attendance at these trainings."

The AG spokesman called the remarks "deeply troubling, potentially unconstitutional and certainly unacceptable."

The NJ Division on Civil Rights is currently reviewing the report for any potential civil rights violations.

Here are the New Jersey police departments that sent officers to the Street Cop Training conference (source):

• Palisades Interstate Parkway Police
• New Jersey State Park Police
• New Jersey State Police

• Somerset County Sheriff’s Office
• Union County Sheriff’s Office
• Warren County Prosecutor’s Office

Municipal police departments:

• Atlantic City
• Bergenfield Borough
• Boonton Town
• Bordentown Township
• Brick Township
• Brigantine City
• Butler Borough
• Carlstadt Borough
• Cherry Hill Township
• East Rutherford Borough
• Eastampton Township
• Edgewater Park Township
• Egg Harbor Township
• Elmwood Park Borough
• Florham Park Borough
• Glassboro Borough
• Glen Rock Borough
• Hackensack City
• Hamilton Township (Atlantic County)
• Harvey Cedars Borough
• Hightstown Borough
• Hopatcong Borough
• Howell Township
• Lincoln Park Borough
• Millville City
• Monmouth Beach Borough
• Montvale Borough
• Moorestown Township
• Morris Township
• New Milford Borough
• Newark City
• Ocean Township (Monmouth County)
• Old Bridge Township
• Pennsauken Township
• Perth Amboy City
• Plainsboro Township
• Pleasantville City
• Point Pleasant Beach Borough
• Riverside Township
• Robbinsville Township
• Rochelle Park Township
• South Hackensack Township
• Spring Lake Heights Borough
• Upper Saddle River Borough
• Vineland City
• West Deptford Township
• West Windsor Township
• Wharton Borough

Street Cop Training founder Dennis Benigno released this vide on YouTube Dec. 12, six days after the state of NJ released its report: