Selection Committee Named for Project Safe Neighborhoods Grant Program

NEWARK, N.J. – Three people will begin their service as part of the selection committee for the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods grants program, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced today.

“I’m pleased that these three distinguished public servants have agreed to serve as members of an external panel that will review applications for grants under the Project Safe Neighborhoods program,” U.S. Attorney Carpenito said. “They each come from a background of extensive public service and each bring a unique perspective to this process.”

The three members of the selection committee are:

John Hoffman, currently General Counsel for Rutgers University, where he oversees a group of 21 attorneys responsible for several hundred litigation matters and general university affairs. Mr. Hoffman served as the state’s Acting Attorney General from June 2013 through March 2016. Before that, he served in the senior leadership team of Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa, as executive assistant Attorney General, and before that he served as director of the Division of Investigations for the State Comptroller’s Office.

Hoffman also has extensive experience in federal government: seven years as a trial attorney for the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and from 2004 to 2010 as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, where he focused primarily on economic and white-collar criminal prosecutions.

Among his achievements as Acting Attorney General, Mr. Hoffman led an initiative to equip police with body-worn cameras and established a new policy directive on police-involved shooting incidents, improving the relationship between law enforcement and diverse communities. He spearheaded several initiatives to address the heroin and opiates epidemic in the state, including the enhancement of the Prescription Monitoring Program to suppress the misuse of prescription medications, and launched the opiate antidote Narcan program to law enforcement agencies statewide resulting in nearly 3,000 overdose reversals.

J. Scott Thomson is Executive Director of Global Security at Holtec International, a diversified energy technology company. Before joining the company, Mr. Thomson was the Chief of the Camden County Police Department, where he pioneered an innovative strategy that significantly transformed the public safety profile of the city of Camden, a city that was once labeled as the “Nation’s Most Dangerous City.” He created a new police department that was responsible for achieving unprecedented reductions in crime, culminating in a 50-year low in 2018. To achieve this, Mr. Thomson developed unique strategies, harnessed technologies, and bolstered an organizational culture that led to President of the United States in 2015 recognizing his department as a model for 21st Century policing.    

Mr. Thomson has served on numerous boards and committees of leading institutions including the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the United States Attorney General Global Advisory Committee, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and was a founding member of the Harvard University Law Enforcement Summit Executive Leadership Group. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, School of Administrative Science.  

From 2015 to 2019, Mr. Thomson was the elected President of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington, D.C., policing think-tank which represents more than 3,000 international law enforcement executives.

Andrea P. McCoy Johnson most recently served as the Re-Entry and Outreach Coordinator for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of New Jersey. A 20-year veteran of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, Ms. McCoy Johnson’s lifelong commitment to public safety, community engagement and criminal justice reform is exhibited in her career in public service. She has combined her interests in youth, criminal justice and community engagement, while working with community groups, law enforcement, and young people.

At the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she implemented Project L.E.A.D. (Legal Enrichment and Decision-Making), where she and other colleagues worked with fifth-graders at schools in Newark, Trenton and Camden. She considered this position the perfect “retirement” position as it allowed her to serve as a liaison between the community and law enforcement, create programs that focus on youth prevention, community awareness and education and allowed her to continue to serve as a public servant who gives back to her community. She also taught criminal justice classes at Rutgers University in the School of Criminal Justice, where she shared her love of juvenile justice reform, criminal justice and community collaboration with the next generation of criminal justice leaders.

After 17 years as an Assistant Prosecutor and Unit Supervisor with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, in 2013, Andrea was elevated to the position of Executive Assistant Prosecutor, where she was responsible for all aspects of human resources, labor and contract negotiations in an Office of over 400 employees, as well as management of the support staff.  Prior to that, she supervised the Juvenile Trial, Community Justice and Victim Witness Advocacy Units and served as an Assistant Prosecutor in the Juvenile Trial and Official Corruption and Economic Crime Units.

Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is designed to create and foster safer neighborhoods through a sustained reduction in violent crime, including, but not limited to, addressing criminal gangs and the felonious possession and use of firearms. The program's effectiveness depends upon the ongoing coordination, cooperation, and partnerships of local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies – and the communities they serve – engaged in a unified approach led by the U.S. Attorney in all 94 districts.