Edward Lennon, the first vice president of the State Troopers Fraternal Organization, said the investigations have had a powerful effect on the way the troopers do their jobs. There's guys out there today just doing patrol, writing summonses and not looking for any criminal activity. It's very obvious they are gun-shy with the current situation with two troopers under indictment. Lennon said troopers felt betrayed by decision makers in Trenton who had given them the task of eradicating drug trafficking on the Turnpike in the 1980s, only to turn around and prosecute them in the 1990s. Nobody's saying that now.
Troopers are skeptical about where they stand with support from above.
One veteran trooper echoed that sentiment. Still, he said, the numbers raised serious questions that the state needed to answer. But it might also mean that what went on in previous years was unjustified. Assemblyman Leroy Jones Jr. Carl Williams was fired in February after comments that linked certain minority groups to drug crimes.