About the New Jersey State Police

On March 29, 1921, the State Police Bill was passed into law. Senator Clarence I. Case, who introduced the bill, is known as the “Father of the State Police.” On July 1, 1921, Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf, a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, was appointed as the first Superintendent of the State Police by Governor Edward I. Edwards.  Schwarzkopf was commissioned to organize the first training class. Competitive examinations were held for the purpose of selecting the type of man desired for this service.  Sixteen hundred men, between the ages of twenty-two and forty, made application for the one hundred and twenty positions allowed by the law.

Today, the New Jersey State Police is organized into four Branches: Administrative Branch; Investigations Branch; Homeland Security Branch; and, Operations Branch.  The Operations Branch contains the Field Operations Section and is the largest of the branches.  The Field Operations Section consists of the Traffic Bureau and the Troop Road Stations.

The New Jersey State Police have seven core services:  General Police Services; Highway and Traffic Enforcement; Statewide Investigation and Intelligence; Emergency Management; Support for State and Local Law Enforcement Efforts; Maintenance of Criminal Records and Identification Systems; and, the Regulation of Certain Commerce.