A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said the figures, requested by The Star-Ledger four weeks ago, were not readily available. Still, the figures were in clear contrast to drug- interdiction statistics from a decade ago. In 1989, troopers on the Turnpike made 5,129 drug arrests. The Attorney General's Office also is reviewing the numbers, said a spokesman, Roger Shatzkin. We've been in a period of analysis where we're evaluating our drug policy.
Troopers are out there doing their jobs.
The numbers indicate that. In those incidents where they have an appropriate reason to make a narcotics arrest, we expect them to do it, and they'll be backed 100 percent. The drop-off coincides with a period of intense scrutiny of the way state troopers conduct drug stops and searches on the Turnpike. Federal authorities have been investigating troopers' conduct for at least three years, and state officials launched their own probe in February after the publication of State Police records showing that 75 percent of arrests on the Turnpike were of minorities. In April the Attorney General's Office released the first of two reports confirming the existence of racial profiling.