Patrolman Gregory Albert, of the Rockaway Township Police Department, has filed suit against the town alleging retaliation.
A police officer in Morris County who complained to state officials three years ago about the department’s communication systems not working properly has been repeatedly passed over for promotions, according to a lawsuit filed last month.
Albert, a police officer in the township since July 2015, says in the lawsuit that his complaint compelled Rockaway Township to conduct an internal audit, which resulted in the township spending “significant funds to repair the portable and car radio system.”Cited as an example of retaliation in the suit, Albert was written up and retrained for not having his siren on while assisting another police department as a secondary unit during a vehicle pursuit.
In October 2021, Albert was the subject of an internal affairs investigation after an allegation surfaced that he had been at a restaurant at the beginning of his shift on a day he called out sick. “Plaintiff engaged in the constitutionally protected conduct as a citizen, not as an employee,” the lawsuit says, adding that his complaints “involved matters of public concern.”