Kevin Patino, the Paterson cop who repeatedly punched a man in a video-recorded December incident that is being probed by the Office of the Attorney General, was involved in 15 other cases in which he used force on people during the past three years, according to public records.
In 12 of those 15 incidents, Patino said he struck the person with his fists or hands, according to the Use of Force reports he filed with the Paterson Police Department. In five of those cases, Patino said in his reports that the person he struck went to the hospital for treatment.
None of the people he struck in those 15 previous incidents filed Internal Affairs complaints against Patino, city records show.
Patino was the among the top five among about 380 city police officers in terms of the number of Use of Force reports filed during one recent 12-month period stretching from 2019 into 2020, according to a Paterson Press analysis of public documents.
Paterson Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale declined to comment on Patino’s Use of Force track record, citing the ongoing state investigation. Patino, whom the city hired as a police officer in July 2017, has been reassigned to desk duty, along with two other cops involved in the December incident, pending the outcome of the attorney general's probe.
