[directive] SUBJECT: Directive  Strengthening Oversight of Municipal Court Prosecutions  Municipal prosecutors play a major role in ensuring consistency and improving the quality of justice in our State’s municipal courts.  To that end, stakeholders from across New Jersey (including municipal prosecutors) have been meeting for more than a year to explore the role of prosecutors in establishing municipal court practices and procedures that better reflect New Jersey’s interests in promoting justice and protecting public safety.  An initial working group of criminal justice stakeholders established in July 2018 identified a number of issues relating to municipal court prosecutions that warranted further study.  Based in part on the working group’s input, the Attorney General announced on August 28, 2018, that he would be directing the Division of Criminal Justice to prepare recommendations for action on several issues.  Among the questions that the Attorney General identified for the Division of Criminal Justice to consider were:  Should the Code of Ethics for County Prosecutors be extended to apply to municipal • prosecutors?  Should prosecutors adopt practices and policies to address criminal justice issues raised • in the recent Report of the Supreme Court Committee on Municipal Court Operations, Fines, and Fees?  Is there an appropriate role for prosecutors to play in advising defendants of potential • collateral consequences of convictions?  New Jersey Is An Equal Opportunity Employer • Printed on Recycled Paper and is Recyclable Page 2  Do Municipal Prosecutor Supervisors or Liaisons in County Prosecutors’ Offices require • additional guidance as to their duties?  After a series of meetings with stakeholders drawn primarily from the membership of the working group formed in July 2018, the Office of the Attorney General and the Division of Criminal Justice concluded that certain of the questions initially posed could not be properly answered without more comprehensive and reliable information concerning the State’s municipal prosecutors.  To provide one example, the working group could not properly evaluate whether to extend to municipal prosecutors the Code of Ethics for County Prosecutors without a better understanding of how many municipal prosecutors would be affected by the Code’s restrictions on participating in political campaigns and holding elected office.  The necessary information about individual municipal prosecutors was not readily available.  Many County Prosecutors’ Offices did not have a current roster of the municipal prosecutors for each municipality within their jurisdiction.  Nor did the Division of Criminal Justice.  Yet without this information, neither is able to provide the kind of oversight contemplated by state laws, such as N.J.S.A. 2B:12-27, which establishes that municipal prosecutors act “under the supervision of the Attorney General or county prosecutor. ”  Pursuant to the authority granted to me under the New Jersey Constitution and the Criminal Justice Act of 1970, N.J.S.A. 52:17B-97 to -117, which provides for the general supervision of criminal justice by the Attorney General as chief law enforcement officer of the State in order to secure the benefits of a uniform and efficient enforcement of the criminal law and the administration of criminal justice throughout the State, I hereby direct all law enforcement and prosecuting agencies operating under the authority of the laws of the state of New Jersey to implement and comply with the procedures outlined below.