ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
ASSEMBLY, No. 4653
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: FEBRUARY 20, 2025
The Assembly Appropriations Committee reports favorably and
with committee amendments Assembly Bill No. 4653.
As amended and reported, this bill requires the Attorney General
to establish a crowd management training program and provide
resources to municipal police departments or forces for large-scale
gatherings and flash mobs under certain circumstances.
Under the amended bill, the Attorney General, in consultation
with the Superintendent of State Police, the New Jersey Office of
Emergency Management, and the New Jersey State Association of
Chiefs of Police, is required to establish a training program for any
municipal police department or force located within a municipality
that, within the preceding twelve months, hosted two or more large-
scale social gatherings or where a flash mob occurred.
The amended bill defines a “flash mob” as a gathering or pop-up
party of 50 or more persons, typically organized through social
media or other electronic communication, that occurs without
advance notice to the municipality or other local governmental unit
and impacts public safety. “Large-scale gathering” is defined as
any public or private gathering with greater than 500 attendees.
The training program is required to include, but is not limited to:
(1) general crowd management techniques;
(2) crowd management techniques applicable to juveniles;
(3) strategies for responding to social media activity related to
large-scale gatherings or flash mobs;
(4) best practices for coordination and resource sharing with
neighboring law enforcement agencies; and
(5) best practices for ensuring the safety of attendees, the public,
and law enforcement during a large-scale gathering or flash mob.
In addition, the amended bill requires the Attorney General to
make the following resources available to any municipal police
department or force that has participated in the training program
established pursuant to the provisions of this amended bill:
(1) access to social media monitoring tools;
(2) mobile command units that may be deployed during a large-
scale gathering or, if practicable, during a flash mob; and 2
(3) personnel from the New Jersey State Police to provide
support, as needed.
Under the amended bill, the Attorney General is required to
establish a process for municipal police departments or forces to
request immediate support during a flash mob.
As amended and reported by the committee, this bill is identical to
Senate Bill No. 3506 (1R).
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS :
The committee amended the bill to make clarifying and technical
changes.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) finds that the bill would
require an indeterminate increase in both upfront and ongoing
expenditures for the Department of Law and Public Safety to establish
a crowd management training program, establish a process for local
law enforcement to request immediate support during a flash mob, and
provide certain resources, as needed, to local law enforcement. The
OLS lacks sufficient information on the number of flash mob
occurrences historically or the cost of the resources needed by local
law enforcement to quantify the bill’s fiscal impact on the department.