the State Office of the public defender is also taking legal action today filing a class action civil rights lawsuit against the New Jersey State Police over what it says are the police agency's extreme delays in processing tens of thousands of expunged criminal records for New Jersey residents as senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan reports Justice Advocates say the backlog means people are being prevented from applying for and getting new jobs or housing they lose out on goodp paying jobs at casinos foul out when volunteering to coach kids sports and get locked out of apartments for rent after old convictions pop up on their criminal background checks even though New Jersey courts officially expunged those offenses and gave them a clean slate some 46,000 people are still waiting sometimes for years for the New Jersey State Police to update their records the State Police Hold the official criminal records of New Jersey so that means that the FBI draws down their records from the state police and all the private background um check companies that landlords use and employers use um are all getting their data from the New Jersey State Police I think the bottom line is the state police need to fix this there aren't workarounds the system is set up where uh kind of all roads lead to the state police and that's why this lawsuit is so important the impact on people's lives forms the heart of this class action lawsuit filed in Mercer Superior Court by New Jersey's public defender it represents six plaintiffs who share a common grievance that the New Jersey state police's extreme delay in processing expungement orders deprives them of their right to resultant benefits we've disguised this plaintiff at his request it doesn't matter what I do if I need fingerprinting that's going to show up he's a military vet and a recovering alcoholic who now councils addicts in Atlantic County he wanted to coach his kids and get a job teaching but his prior offenses show up on background checks even though they were expunged almost two years ago the anxiety that I experience having to wait and like are they going to know are they going to say something am I am I not going to get the job um you know am I gonna be judged people apply even just for jobs at Home Depot and they get denied the job because the state police don't clear their criminal records so that's why we're fighting this case on behalf of all of them everybody who got an expungement is entitled to the benefit of being able to say that they don't have any convictions the lawsuit named superintendent Colonel Patrick Callahan and argues his agency got a $15 million appropriation to update its admittedly obsolete Data Systems and hire staff to process documents within a reasonable time according to a law signed by Governor Murphy in 2019 Meredith shik directs the EXP law project at ruter over four years later the fact that the system and the backlog is worse than it was when they were given the $15 million is completely unacceptable the state police never sent up a flare to say we're having a problem here they've never responded to me ever um and they have um completely ignored requests and emails and letters to try to find out what's going on she's referred dreams of data to Jersey state comp controller for investigation the lawsuit's request looks simple on its face what they're asking is to mandate that the state police follow the law people are waiting years after the court has said you are entitled to this relief hey State Police clear it from their records the state police did not respond to our request for a comment I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight news