TCNJ

37 SPRING 2021 a groundbreaking investigation that appeared last year on the front page of both USA Today and the Asbury Park Press that revealed the dangers of police car chases in New Jersey. Mazeika helped Ford sift through and analyze more than 4 million arrest records, where they found that over the last decade, at least 55 people were killed and more than 2,500 were injured in car chases, nearly half of those being bystanders and police officers. Three criminology students — Nicholas Scales '20, Rich Kyle '22, and Hailey Stack '22 — gathered and summarized police car chase policies from other states. Mazeika held When the Asbury Park Press published its 2018 series on police misconduct, David Mazeika inhaled every story — all 19 of them. Mazeika, an assistant professor of criminology who'd grown up in Monmouth County poring over sports box scores in the newspaper, was amazed by the scope of reporting and use of data to shed light on rogue cops. One story in particular, involving a man who died after police forcibly restrained him at a music festival in nearby Howell, stuck with him. "It was unbelievable stuff," Mazeika says. "And it was happening in my backyard." An idea began to percolate. partners showed that many of the pur- suits were not instigated by serious crimes but instead prompted by minor offenses. For example, in the last decade, according to their research, at least 23 fatal chases began with minor traffic infractions. As a result of these findings, New Jersey's attorney general, Gurbir Grewal, recently restricted the ability of the police to instigate car chases. To start a pursuit, officers must now suspect someone of having committed a first-degree or violent second-degree crime; any threat to public safety must be related to the person's actions before police tried to stop them rather than stemming solely from " We had an impact on policing policy in New Jersey. That is monumental. " — Nicholas Scales '20 Mazeika realized an opportunity existed to support newspapers stretched thin by diminishing resources and, at the same time, pro- vide students with hands-on research experience with real-world stakes. He invited one of the lead reporters, Andrew Ford, to visit campus and talk about the misconduct series with the students. At the end of the visit, Mazeika made his pitch: Why not work together? It was the beginning of an unusual partnership that has so far yielded two collaborations between the newspaper and the college, including weekly meetings to field questions and oversee their progress, but let the students take charge of the research. The trio divided up the 49 other states and, for several months in the fall of 2019, chased down answers, calling and sending hundreds of emails to police departments, records clerks, and offices of state attorneys general across the country. They discovered that New Jersey's police pursuit guidelines are the most detailed in the country, and allowed the police broad discretion to chase vehicles that they thought posed an immediate safety threat. But the reporting from Ford and his TCNJ any speeding or evasive driving in response to the pursuit itself. Using his research skills to help make New Jersey safer for both civil- ians and police officers resonated on a personal level for Scales; his father, a state trooper, died in the line of duty when Scales was 6 years old. "We worked so hard, and it made a difference," Scales says. "We had an impact on policing policy in New Jersey. That is monumental." Ford, who first worked with Mazeika and some of his students on a project about fitness standards for police recruits, says the collaboration accelerated his reporting.

• Cover