State Sues Clark Township, Alleging Years of Discriminatory Traffic Stops and Searches

New Jersey’s attorney general says a civil-rights lawsuit seeks court oversight, policy changes, and damages for motorists after an investigation spanning 2015 through the end of a state takeover in 2025.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the state Division on Civil Rights (DCR) filed a lawsuit in Superior Court alleging that Clark Township and the Clark Police Department systematically discriminated against Black and other non-white motorists through traffic stops, searches, and enforcement tactics that investigators say were designed to deter those drivers from entering or traveling through the Union County community.

The complaint, announced Jan. 15, alleges the conduct violated the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) and the New Jersey Constitution, and names former Clark Mayor Salvatore Bonaccorso, former police chief Pedro Matos, and police director Patrick Grady among the defendants accused of aiding and abetting the alleged discriminatory practices. 

“Elected officials and law enforcement leaders must treat every single person, no matter their race or national origin, with dignity and respect. That’s the bare minimum. But for many years before the Union County Prosecutor’s Office took over operations in 2020, leadership in Clark Township and the Clark Police Department completely and utterly failed to meet that basic obligation,” said Attorney General Platkin. “Through overt racial animus and discriminatory policing practices, Clark violated New Jersey’s civil rights laws and the New Jersey Constitution. While we have already taken substantial steps to address these issues, today’s complaint gives voice to the many New Jerseyans who have suffered discrimination in Clark and will ensure that Clark’s leadership never allows it to happen again.”

What the state alleges happened

According to the state’s announcement, DCR’s investigation focused on the period from 2015 through the end of the Union County Prosecutor’s Office (UCPO) supersession of Clark police operations in March 2025. The complaint alleges that before the supersession began in July 2020, township and police leadership explicitly instructed officers “to keep Black people out of Clark,” and that Bonaccorso directed police leadership to engage in discriminatory policing to “keep chasing the spooks out of town,” using a racial slur to refer to Black people.

The complaint also alleges that Clark police leadership used specific enforcement strategies tied to that goal, including: concentrating traffic enforcement on roads connecting Clark to the Garden State Parkway and to neighboring Rahway and Linden; emphasizing equipment and administrative violations over moving violations more directly linked to traffic safety; and using false claims about the odor of marijuana to justify vehicle searches.

The data cited in the complaint

The state says its allegations are supported by “detailed expert statistical analysis” showing large racial disparities in stops and searches before the 2020 takeover.

Among the figures highlighted in the announcement:

• From 2015 to 2020, Clark police searched Black drivers at a rate 3.7 times higher than white drivers, and searched Hispanic drivers at a rate 2.2 times higher than white drivers, in stops where race was recorded.

• While Black and Hispanic residents make up less than 11% of Clark’s population, the state says stop data from 2015 to 2020 show Black or Hispanic drivers accounted for more than 37% of recorded stops, and more than 53% of stops conducted outside Clark’s boundaries.

The state’s announcement also notes that some disparities persisted after the 2020 supersession, but says data from 2020 to 2024 show “notable changes and improvements” that coincided with reductions in some disparities.

What the lawsuit seeks

In the filing, the state is seeking, among other relief, a court injunction barring discriminatory policing in violation of the LAD, monitoring of the township and police department by DCR, and damages to victims of the alleged practices.

DCR Director Yolanda N. Melville, in the announcement, framed the lawsuit as an enforcement action under the LAD and constitutional protections. 

“New Jersey has some of the nation’s strongest civil rights laws, but for years leadership in Clark brazenly violated the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and violated individuals’ Constitutional rights,” said DCR Director Yolanda N. Melville. “We cannot and will not allow the repugnant behavior of public officials in Clark Township and the unlawful practices that the Clark Police Department engaged in for years.”

Background: takeover, report, and state oversight

The lawsuit follows years of state involvement in Clark policing. UCPO assumed control of the Clark Police Department via supersession in July 2020, an unusual step that remained in place until March 2025, according to the state and prior reporting.

In November 2023, the Office of the Attorney General released a public report tied to UCPO and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability investigations into alleged misconduct by township and police leadership, and referred bias-in-policing allegations to DCR for further review.

After supersession ended, Platkin established a state law-enforcement monitorship of the Clark Police Department led by the Department of Law and Public Safety’s Office of Policing Strategy and Innovation, according to the state announcement.

What’s next

The allegations in the complaint will be litigated in court. The state’s filing represents claims, not findings, and Clark Township and the Clark Police Department will have the opportunity to respond.

The state also said anyone with information about discrimination by the Clark Police Department can contact DCR’s Affirmative Enforcement Unit at AffirmativeEnforcement@njcivilrights.gov.

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