Protecting Residents at Home and on the Street

By Vin Gopal

In the final days of the last legislative session, former Governor Phil Murphy signed into law a number of our bills to protect residents both at home and when they are in public.

Our legislative initiatives to protect victims of human trafficking and domestic violence, support police in handling large crowds and flash mobbs, and stop the publication of intimate photos without the subject’s consent, are now the law.

We worked for the past two years in bipartisan fashion to advance our legislation, S1989, to hold anyone who benefits from human trafficking accountable. This problem is more pervasive than many people may realize.

Human trafficking happens everywhere. It is modern-day slavery that keeps some of our most vulnerable residents – most victims are women and children – held captive physically, psychologically and emotionally. More than 80 percent of human trafficking is classified as sex trafficking, which heavily relies on the use of hotels and motels. Previously, the law failed to capture the entire scope of beneficiaries of this heinous crime. Our legislation opens the door for any party who knowingly profits from human trafficking to be held accountable. The new law also increases research to prevent the disproportionate trafficking of women and children of color.

As a Senate cosponsor of my LD11 partner, Assemblywoman Margie Donlon’s sponsored bill, A4653, it is gratifying to report that the state attorney general will now be required to establish a training program for crowd management and provide resources to municipal police departments for managing large gatherings and flash mobs.

Our police officers are the first and last line of defense when unruly crowds suddenly appear and take over a business district or beachfront entertainment area, as they have done several times at Long Branch’s Pier Village. These groups spread the word quickly through social media to partygoers without any notice to municipalities or their police departments. The unannounced, often rowdy crowds hurt businesses by restricting customer access, sometimes causing injury and property damage.

Under the new law, the attorney general would work with the Superintendent of State Police, the NJ Office of Emergency Management, and the State Association of Chiefs of Police to come up with a training program for local police departments. In addition to general crowd management techniques, especially techniques applicable to juveniles, the law now calls for developing strategies for responding to social media activity related to large-scale gatherings.

We also must ensure that people are safe at homes as well, and unfortunately that means we must sometimes protect them from people in their own homes. Assemblywoman Luanne Peterpaul of our LD11 office was the primary sponsor of A1802, which Assemblywoman Donlon and I cosponsored, requiring law enforcement officers to conduct danger assessments of domestic violence victims. The law also requires the police to provide assistance to people they deem as high-risk victims.

Assemblywoman Peterpaul also was a primary sponsor of A4147, which clarifies that consent to being photographed, filmed, or recorded in a sexual manner does not include or imply consent to disclosure of image. Unscrupulous people and bullies have used social media to harass people by publishing intimate photos that were intended only for private use. Their actions destroy people’s reputations and create lasting psychological trauma.

Our bill gives these victims recourse. Now it’s clear that consent to being photographed in sexual or sexually suggestive images cannot be taken as the person’s consent to the disclosure of them.

No one should have to fear having their privacy violated or being threatened at home or on the street. That’s why we will keep working in the new legislative session to make New Jersey safer, more equitable and more affordable for all.