Trenton police director Steve Wilson says his department's use-of-force incidents fell 32% between 2024 and 2025, a figure he points to as proof the city has turned a corner since a scathing federal civil-rights investigation. But newer numbers complicate that narrative: officers reported more use-of-force incidents in the first six months of 2026 than they did during the same stretch of 2025, at a rate on pace with 2024.
Wilson made his comments as Trenton continues to defend its record following a 2024 U.S. Justice Department investigation that, according to the city's own account, found a pattern of unconstitutional stops, searches, seizures and excessive force. As reported by CBS News Philadelphia, the discrepancy between the touted 32% decline and the 2026 uptick leaves an open question about whether the department's reforms are actually taking hold or whether the recent numbers represent a step backward.
Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora has said the city has already implemented many of the Justice Department's recommendations, telling the station, “We have already made much of the recommendations that the DOJ has laid out for us.” The department says it has increased officer training, restructured its internal affairs operation, and in some cases now pairs officers with mental health professionals when responding to certain calls, according to the same report.
What the City Says It Has Changed
According to the City of Trenton's own timeline of initiatives, the police department reorganized its Internal Affairs unit into an expanded Internal Affairs Bureau in February 2024, adding staff and broadening its scope. The city says that bureau now reviews every use-of-force and vehicle-pursuit incident. All Trenton police personnel reportedly completed de-escalation and active-bystandership training back in September 2021, per the city's account, and in 2025 the department began an accreditation process intended to verify its policies and procedures met accepted law-enforcement standards.
That accreditation effort appears to have borne fruit: in June 2026, the department received accreditation from the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, the station reported. Yet even with that credential in hand, the first-half 2026 use-of-force numbers were trending upward rather than down, underscoring the uncertainty over what, if anything, has actually changed on the ground.
A Costly Reminder of the Underlying Case
The stakes behind the use-of-force debate were laid bare in September, when Trenton City Council approved a $2.05 million settlement with the family of 64-year-old Joseph Ahr Sr., who died after police pepper-sprayed him repeatedly outside his home in 2020. Ahr, who had one working lung, died in intensive care 18 days after the encounter, according to NJ.com. The settlement included no admission of wrongdoing by the city or its officers.
That case isn't the only costly settlement tied to a deadly police encounter in Trenton. In 2023, the city agreed to pay $1.9 million to the family of 29-year-old Stephen Dolceamore, who died after a struggle with police, the outlet's report noted. Separately, state prosecutors in May 2025 dropped an official-misconduct charge against Trenton officer Nicholas Piotrowski, who had been involved in the pepper-spray incident, citing new eyewitness accounts and newly developed evidence that changed the total evidence available in the case.
Original Reporting on Reform's Mixed Record
The original NJ.com examination of Trenton's reform efforts, authored by Riley Yates, places the city's experience against a broader statewide backdrop: New Jersey's roughly 45,000 law enforcement officers record more than 10,000 force incidents a year, averaging more than 27 per day statewide, with most involving physical control methods such as arm bars, wrist locks, punches and leg sweeps. The state overhauled its use-of-force rules in 2020 for the first time in two decades, requiring that force be used only as a last resort after attempting de-escalation, rules intended to prevent brutality while still letting officers protect themselves and the public.
Trenton's federal scrutiny began after a 2023 community meeting at Greater Mount Zion A.M.E. Church helped spur the investigation that followed, and city officials pledged in 2024 to improve police practices in response. That Justice Department probe ultimately ended after President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025; his administration dropped the investigations into Trenton and seven other police departments accused of civil-rights violations, characterizing the federal pattern-or-practice probes as a failed experiment.
Community Voices Weigh In
Trenton police director Wilson, who has led the department for five years, has said his tenure focused on improving the department's standing and bringing in community groups, and that the department now does more community outreach than it did earlier in his career with the force, which began in the 1990s. His chief of staff, Yolanda Ward, has said Trenton's use-of-force instances have declined dramatically since the 2020 statewide policy change, and that vehicle pursuits by Trenton police have dropped almost 75% since 2023.
Not everyone is convinced the change has reached the street level. Dontae Thomas, who has said Trenton has improved somewhat but that more work remains, and Pete Lewis have both said residents often stop speaking once police arrive on a scene. Lewis put it more bluntly, saying people fear arrest rather than expect help when officers show up. The Trenton Restorative Street Team, a violence-prevention group, has been cited among the community organizations working alongside the department.
State Officials Tour New Jersey for Input
The questions swirling around Trenton surfaced again this week as New Jersey's Attorney General's Office held the first of three planned listening sessions on improving statewide use-of-force policies, convening at Greater Mount Zion A.M.E. Church in Trenton with about 75 people in attendance. Attorney General Jennifer Davenport has said the review will assess whether current standards align with best practices, and that policy revisions seek respect for human life, alternatives to force, reasonable and proportional force, and deadly force only as a genuine last resort.
Senior officials from the Attorney General's office, including Martha Nye and Joseph Walsh of the criminal division and Yolanda Melville of the civil rights division, listened to public comments without responding at the Trenton session. Speakers called for more comprehensive officer training, greater transparency about police misconduct, culture-sensitivity training, improved interaction with communities of color, and stronger enforcement of departments' own written rules. Daniel Sullivan, policy director with the ACLU of New Jersey, urged the state to close training gaps and verify that agency-level training actually aligns with the revised policy, de-escalation practices and crisis response. Advocates at the session also urged continued investment in violence-prevention teams. Additional sessions are scheduled for Thursday in Elizabeth and for November 19 in Pleasantville.
The debate unfolds against a grim statewide tally: New Jersey police officers have shot and killed at least 73 people since 2019, averaging about 10 deaths a year, according to an NJ.com review, including seven so far in 2026. Among the 2026 total was Luis Castro Quinones, who authorities say was fatally shot by a plainclothes state police detective during an investigation in Moonachie on October 28.
