Court Opinion

ID: 9735337
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:09:40.219298+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:57.399370
License: Public Domain

PER CURIAM.
This matter, which has an- extensive history, is before us for the second time. In our first decision, we remanded the matter to the Merit System Board (the Board) in the Department of Personnel to “relate its findings in this ease to the statutory qualifications” for a law-enforcement officer. 124 N.J. 534, 536, 591 A.2d 1333 (1991). The basic issue on this appeal is whether the Board complied with the terms of the remand. The Appellate Division *308found that it had so complied. 272 N.J.Super. 199, 639 A.2d 724 (1993). In so finding, the Appellate Division relied on the familiar principle that appellate courts ordinarily sustain the decisions of administrative agencies unless those decisions are arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable, or are not supported by substantial credible evidence. Henry v. Rahway State Prison, 81 N.J. 571, 579-80, 410 A.2d 686 (1980). We affirm substantially for the reasons stated by the Appellate Division. 272 N.J.Super. at 199, 639 A.2d 724.
We note, as did the Appellate Division, that Vey’s negative test results were consistent with “the observed negative trend in [her] behavior and work performance____” 272 N.J.Super. at 205, 639 A.2d 724. In brief, the facts and the psychological tests both point to the conclusion that appellant would not be an effective law-enforcement officer.
Society reposes in police officers responsibilities that are simultaneously weighty, sensitive, and fraught with dangerous consequences to themselves, other police officers, and the public. Police officers are authorized to carry firearms, N.J.S.A 2C:39-5 to -6a(3), and to use deadly force in justifiable circumstances, N.J.S.A. 2C:3-7. They can engage in high-speed chases with absolute immunity from suit, Tice v. Cramer, 133 N.J. 347, 627 A.2d 1090 (1993); they are called on, in certain instances, to stop motor vehicles and search passengers without probable cause, State v. Muhammed, 134 N.J. 599, 637 A.2d 158 (1994); and they are sometimes required to intervene in domestic disputes, N.J.SA 2C:25-17 to -33. Not everyone can do that kind of work. Fresh in our memory is the police brutality that underlay the officer’s conviction in State v. O’Donnell, 117 N.J. 210, 564 A.2d 1202 (1989). That incident serves to remind us that police work is not just another job and that some people should not serve as police officers.
We cannot say that the Board was arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable in finding unfit for police work an applicant who is, among other things, “impulsive,” “manipulative,” “irresponsible,” *309“easily frustrated,” “unpredictable,” “careless,” “defensive,” “assertive and bold with advisory personnel,” “suspicious,” and “uninhibited and spontaneous.”
Our dissenting colleagues urge that before declining to offer employment to Vey, the North Wildwood Police Department now should first test all of its current police officers and compare those test results with Vey’s results. Post at 315, 639 A.2d at 722. We imposed no such requirement in our original opinion, and we decline to do so at this late date. Similarly, although the dissent challenges the value of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) test, post at 313, 639 A.2d at 721, we did not question the test in the original opinion. The test is nationally used and officially recognized by the Board in N.J.AC. 4A:4-6.5(f)(5). Furthermore, Vey’s own expert relied on the MMPI test when evaluating her. Finally, at no stage of this protracted proceeding has appellant ever asserted that any governmental agency, state or municipal, discriminated against her because of her gender or that any of the psychological tests were unfair to women. Indeed, in our original opinion, we expressly stated that the “case before us is not an employment-discrimination case and does not raise questions of disproportionate impact of the testing criteria____” 124 N.J. at 541, 591 A.2d 1333. The dissent’s attempt to inject such questions now, post at 309-10, 639 A.2d at 719-20, is at once gratuitous, belated, and unfounded.
The judgment of the Appellate Division is affirmed.
For affirmance—Chief Justice WILENTZ and Justices CLIFFORD, HANDLER, POLLOCK and GARIBALDI—5.
For reversal—Justices O’HERN and STEIN—2.