TRENTON — Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin today issued a new statewide directive to law enforcement requiring all agencies in New Jersey to develop and maintain an active violent events policy that meets certain standards. While many agencies have their own active shooter policies, Attorney General Law Enforcement Directive 2025-2 would ensure all agencies across the state are equally prepared, and that individual agency policies meet a consistent standard with regard to procedures and training requirements.
“My office is committed to making sure every law enforcement agency and officer is well prepared, in the event of a tragedy, to take immediate action,” said Attorney General Platkin. “Lack of planning and delays during an active shooter response can be disastrous and result in the unnecessary loss of innocent lives. This directive seeks to ensure agencies have proper training, policies, and plans in place. It is our greatest responsibility to reduce the frequency and severity of these incidents, we must take every precaution possible.”
Effective immediately, Directive 2025-2 directs agencies to develop an active violent event policy outlining training, coordination, and response plans. Agencies will be required to submit their policies to their respective county prosecutor’s office by January 9, 2026, and the Prosecutor’s offices will confirm each plan is consistent with the directive’s requirements.
Under the new directive, every agency’s active shooter policy must meet specific criteria. That includes recognizing the priorities for law enforcement during such situations: addressing and neutralizing the threat, rescuing victims, and clearing the area of bystanders.
Policies must also include protocols for on-scene coordination as outlined in the National Incident Management System (NIMS), and establishing a unified command structure to enable coordinated emergency management of the incident.
According to the directive, every policy must contain protocols for family reunification, including systems for establishing which agency will coordinate reunification and a process for selecting and standing up a reunification site.
Each agency must have a law-enforcement training plan with elements that include a mandatory basic active shooter incident management course and tactical training course for officers. Every county prosecutor’s office must conduct an annual active shooter training exercise, with required participation from every law enforcement agency in their respective county, while encouraging participation from fire departments and emergency medical services providers.
The directive places particular emphasis on preparing law enforcement to respond effectively at certain critical locations such as educational institutions, hospitals, stadiums, and government buildings. All agencies must identify up-to-date points of contact for those critical locations, while agencies that have educational institutions within their jurisdictions must also have a plan for enabling police to gain immediate access to each institution. That plan should be developed jointly with each educational institution to account for the specific needs, resources, and equipment of each. In addition, agencies should have a readily accessible map of every educational institution within the jurisdiction. In August 2022, Governor Phil Murphy announced the investment of $6.5 million in federal funding to collect and digitize school building blueprints and make them available to first responders, in an effort to enable police to swiftly respond to emergencies in unfamiliar environments.
