Federal investigators are examining the Jerame Reid case. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it shouldn't be viewed as a second chance to indict the officers involved.
Confirmation from Bridgeton officials that the federal government is looking into the fatal December 2014 shooting of suspect Jerame Reid by a pair of city police officers should not surprise anyone who has followed the case.
Officers Braheme Days and Roger Worley were exempted from any possible criminal charges in August, when a Cumberland County grand jury chose not to indict them. The outcome has continued to earn skepticism from Reid's family and the surrounding community, and has spawned peaceful demonstrations organized by local activists.
It should not be routine for the U.S. Justice Department or FBI to investigate every time a minority suspect undergoes lethal force from municipal police officers. If those with grievances over the Reid case grand jury outcome think the feds are predisposed toward a "do over" to indict Days and Worley, they may be greatly disappointed.
We'd hope a federal review would be broad enough in scope to examine police policies and practices in Bridgeton. Such an outside look should be welcome by anyone interested in justice and fairness, especially if brings recommendations for any change that may be needed.
It's possible that federal investigators will find that the killing of Reid was justified, as the grand jury apparently concluded, but that problems will be found with the department's deadly force policy in general, as well as how it chooses who officers stop and who they arrest.
It can't be stressed enough that controversy over the grand jury result stems partly from New Jersey law that allows county prosecutors' offices to decide (usually with compliant grand juries) whether or not to charge cops in use-of-force and other serious cases. The officers work for each town, and the prosecutor's office is attached to the county. But the relationship is so close as to form an automatic conflict of interest presumption. Local departments and county prosecutors routinely work hand in hand bringing suspects to justice and supporting trial evidence. That's as it should be, but complications arise when local officers are put under the microscope.
The New Jersey Attorney General's Office can investigate such cases directly, based on a 2006 law. But the AG rarely chooses to do so -- it didn't with Worley and Days -- and that's a major flaw. It's shameful that state legislation introduced in May by Sen. Peter Barnes III (D-Middlesex), which compels the AG to handle investigations when an on-duty law enforcement officer has caused a death, didn't even make it past the Senate Judiciary Committee in the just-ended Legislative session. Lawmakers must give expedited consideration to the pre-filed 2016-2017 Assembly version of the bill (A-1116).
Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com