Controversial police training firm files for bankruptcy, blames New Jersey investigations

Street Cop, the police training company under investigation for a controversial conference it hosted in Atlantic City in 2021, has declared bankruptcy.

Owner Dennis Benigno filed the petition late last month, one day after he said the state Attorney General’s Office warned him it would seek monetary penalties as part of its probe into a Street Cop conference the state Comptroller’s Office said glorified violence, encouraged insubordination, and promoted unconstitutional policing tactics.

The state investigations capped a rocky year for the company, attorney Daniel Velasquez wrote. It “was already suffering” from a $210,000 wrongful termination lawsuit and a $500,000 software failure when the comptroller’s report dropped in December, Velasquez said.

That bombshell report drove several Street Cop instructors to resign and at least nine states — New Jersey, Maryland, California, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, and Oregon — to prohibit their law enforcement agencies from attending Street Cop training, according to the filing.

“Rather than subject the Debtor’s depleted staff to additional harassment from the State of New Jersey, Street Cop Training elected to pursue Chapter 11 relief to restructure its financial affairs, dispute claims, and preserve its going concern value for the ultimate benefit of its creditors and estate,” Velasquez wrote.

Chapter 11 cases, known as reorganization bankruptcies, allow debtors to continue operating their business, retain their assets, and even borrow new money, with court approval, while they restructure their finances. Creditors also are required to hold off on collecting what they’re owed.

Benigno listed about 20 creditors who are owed almost $420,000, including the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., where Street Cop is set to host a five-day, $699-per-attendee convention starting April 28. It’s unclear if the bankruptcy will impact that conference.

Benigno founded Street Cop in 2012 after stints as an officer in the Woodbridge police department, Middlesex County Department of Corrections, and U.S. Park Police. Within a decade, it became one of the busiest police training firms nationally. In court paperwork, the firm says it trains more than 25,000 officers a year throughout the U.S.

But one of the 1,000 people who attended its October 2021 conference at an Atlantic City casino shared recordings with a Washington Post reporter, who used the conference to illustrate the alarming lessons officers learn in an industry that largely operates without oversight.

In court filings this month, Benigno cited as his reasons for filing bankruptcy the Post’s “politically motivated hit piece,” other media coverage, and the comptroller’s investigation.

Benigno sued in state court to fight the comptroller’s subpoenas for his testimony and records relating to the conference, complaining that the state wasn’t scrutinizing other police training firms and accusing state officials of overreach and political motivations. He lost that case but sued again in federal court, accusing the comptroller’s office of harassment and retaliation.

Last week, a federal judge tossed the federal case. Benigno’s attorney, Jonathan Cohen, told the New Jersey Monitor Tuesday they would not appeal that decision because the fight is now moot. Benigno submitted to the comptroller’s interview in October, he noted.

Whatever his troubles now, Benigno’s bankruptcy filings show his work has been lucrative.

The firm had gross revenue of $3.5 million in 2021 and $3.75 million in 2022. He reported he had about $209,000 in cash on hand, audio and visual equipment worth about $7,000, and branded items and apparel. The company has 12 independent instructors who work as needed and six employees tasked with booking trainings, marketing, selling merchandise, and facilitating state education credits for its courses, according to filings.

It listed $211,000 in unsecured debt obligations.

Benigno filed for bankruptcy Jan. 31 in Florida, listing a luxury apartment complex in Melbourne, Fla., as his business address. Street Cop’s website, though, lists two different New Jersey addresses for its corporate headquarters and mailing address.

Sharon Lauchaire, a spokeswoman for New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, said Tuesday that 240 officers from New Jersey agencies attended Street Cop’s 2021 conference, and all would be re-trained next month. After the comptroller’s office tipped Platkin’s office to its findings in March 2023, Platkin ordered state police to stop any involvement with Street Cop and suspended reimbursements, Lauchaire added.

 He also directed the Police Training Commission last year to consider statewide guidelines for acceptable police training provided by outside vendors, she said. A new state law requiring officers to be licensed also requires that commission to develop mandatory training, and the commission now is expanding its curriculum staff to establish continuing education standards and devise uniform training for all officers, she said.

The civil rights division in Platkin’s office also is investigating, she added.

Instruction and comments at Street Cop’s conference were “deeply troubling, potentially unconstitutional, and certainly unacceptable and inconsistent with the State’s commitment to fair, just, and safe policing,” Lauchaire said.

Criminal defense attorneys have warned that cases involving officers who attended the training could collapse in court.

Pam Kruger, a spokeswoman for the comptroller’s office, said their investigation isn’t over.

“The Office of the State Comptroller’s report showed that Street Cop’s training promoted likely illegal tactics, glorified violence, and demeaned women and minorities. New Jersey should not pay for that kind of police training, and it’s not surprising that other states came to that same conclusion,” Kruger said. “OSC’s investigation is ongoing as there is more work to do.”