Trenton mayor again backs police director after latest blunder

TRENTON » For the second consecutive month, Mayor Eric Jackson is standing behind his police director following another well-publicized mistake.

The Trentonian reported Monday that city Police Director Ernest Parrey Jr. illegally pulled over a driver on June 22. A police body camera video obtained by The Trentonian through a public records request showed Parrey at a driver’s side window asking for vehicle registration.

As a civilian police director, Parrey “cannot perform police duties including conducting motor vehicle stops, engaging in patrol activities, answering calls for service and stopping or detaining individuals,” according to documents by the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police.

Jackson said Tuesday after a press conference at City Hall that he has “100 percent confidence” in Parrey’s leadership abilities.

“I’m going to uphold the law,” the mayor said. “I’m glad that I had a police director show leadership and saw something that was potentially a very hazardous condition, compelled to do something. But I understand on the other hand, the law says that he cannot act.”

Jackson went as far to say the same can’t be said about other officers in the department taking initiative.

“I have a problem with some officers, they look the other way,” the first-term mayor said. “They see something in our communities, they look the other way.”

For example, Jackson said, he was riding down Dye Street a month ago when he observed a police vehicle drive by a car that was “parked in the opposite direction, a foot from the curb.”

“They went around it,” he explained. “We can’t have people looking the other way. They’ve got to deal with what they see on our streets. The quality of life matters.”

Last month, The Trentonian reported and published a video of Parrey calling residents “hoodrats.”

“There’s a lot of kids out here,” Parrey says in the footage from a police body camera that was shot on Aug. 23, 2016 on the 500 block of Lamberton Street. “But even coming down earlier on, there’s a lot of hoodrats out, up and down. Just send them on their way.”

Despite calls for Parrey’s resignation, the mayor backed his police director.

“The guy is of high integrity,” Jackson said last month. “He’s done a great job as a police director for me and for this city.”

Parrey ultimately apologized two days after the video surfaced.

Several officers say Parrey has “lost the respect from the men and women” in the police department. City police officers, who wished to remain anonymous, alerted The Trentonian about the illegal stop, signaling a strong division in the department.

Jackson, however, denied a division was occurring.

“I haven’t had any officers say that to me and I’m in touch with a lot of the police officers there,” the mayor said. “I don’t see division. I don’t see opposition against this administration.”

Jackson said he would be willing to speak with any officer who has beef with Parrey.

“We need everybody focused on the same thing today,” the mayor said. “We can’t work in division and think we’re going to take steps forward.”

Jackson said he would ask anyone who is opposed to Parrey as the city’s top law enforcement official if they “are really here to help?”

In regards to the illegal stop, the mayor said there will be “some changes going forward,” but he declined to elaborate.

“He stops the car because he’s concerned about what’s going on in the community,” Jackson said. “He stopped the car because he’s concerned about public safety.”