Richard Rivera

Background

About Richard Rivera

Rich Rivera is currently the Police Director in Penns Grove, NJ and began his police career as an Auxiliary Police officer volunteer in 1988. He worked full-time as a police officer while attending college full time and obtained his bachelor’s degree. Just below the surface at the police department, he learned officers were engaged in massive corruption and deception at his job. If he remained silence, he would have been shielded by the blue wall of silence and enjoy peer acceptance among a rouge band of officers that placed their personal desires above the community they served. Instead, Rich chose to stand against the lawlessness and worked with the FBI on what remains New Jersey’s largest police corruption case. More than 35 people, including a dozen dirty cops were convicted of federal racketeering-related crimes. Before he was indicted or served five years in prison, the police chief fired Rivera. This trajectory set Rich on a new course of upholding police professionalism and community service. He later obtained a master’s degree in criminal justice. For more than two decades, Richard has made it his life’s work to prevent police misconduct using the lessons from his infiltration of a group of rogue officers. He’s traveled the U.S. presenting to civil rights and law enforcement organizations on police accountability and preventing employee misconduct. Since 2008 he has been recognized as a Latino civil rights champion in New Jersey focusing on community partnerships with police and he has amassed large datasets on police activities to share with law enforcement executives and community stakeholders. Over the last ten years his work has led to numerous national media exposés on the state of policing in New Jersey and changes to statewide Attorney General policing directives. In 2013, the Governor of New Jersey appointed Rich the state Human Relations Council for his ability to bring together people and groups of diverse backgrounds. He was elected chairperson by his colleagues to head the group’s efforts to reduce bias crimes and educate communities on hate acts and bullying. Rich continues to work on policing issues and community engagement. He is also an accomplished peer counselor serving hundreds of police officers and their families to cope with the stressors of being a cop or loving one. In 2012, he co-founded the National Coalition of Latino Officers to promote Latino inclusion and works closely with faith-based leaders and executives of other minority policing associations on bias-free policing and equality in the workplace.