The credit-card size documents may be known as police courtesy cards, gold cards or family cards. They are distributed by law enforcement officers and their unions to a favored few and are flashed by drivers hoping for leniency when stopped for traffic violations. A report released Wednesday by a New Jersey government watchdog has for the first time pierced a well-guarded veil of secrecy around the cards and the surprising scope of their power, the New York Times reports. The report arose from an analysis of 50 hours of video footage from body-worn cameras during traffic stops made by New Jersey State Police troopers in December 2022. It found a “two-tiered system of justice” with differing treatment for those with law enforcement connections and for those without.
“A lot of what we saw was really brazen and obvious,” said Kevin Walsh, New Jersey’s acting comptroller, who conducted the study. “Drivers thought they would be treated with deference once they showed that they were part of the club.” In most cases, the cards worked. More than a quarter of 501 motorists who drove off without receiving tickets after being pulled over by a state trooper during a 10-day period either flashed a courtesy card or told the officer they knew someone in law enforcement, the investigation found. The cards are common in many states, including New York, where a New York Police Department officer was awarded $175,000 in a legal settlement this year after he said he was punished for refusing to give a break to a driver who showed him a courtesy card. Videos of recorded exchanges released Wednesday by the comptroller’s office show that in New Jersey the courtesy can extend even to drivers in high-speed pursuits and to drivers who admit to having been drinking. “Do you realize we were behind you probably for, like, five miles?” an unidentified trooper asks a driver stopped for speeding. “You’re putting your life at risk,” the trooper said. “I’m chasing you, putting my life at risk — driving 95 miles an hour, weaving through traffic — just to get to you.”