New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal says that he will not stop fighting for transparency in New Jersey’s police departments.

Grewal was one of several people, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who spoke Wednesday at a state Senate hearing on the matter.

“We’re not here because people don’t like police. I’m a mayor of the largest city in the state, predominantly Black and brown. Most of our residents want police officers,” Baraka said. “They want police officers in their neighborhoods. They want safety. They want security. What they don’t want is their children shot to death by the recreation centers for playing with water guns or people choked to death for selling cigarettes or people with their knee on your neck until you die for $20. That’s what they don’t want.”

Senators involved in the hearing included Sen. Joe Cryan, who once served as Union County sheriff, and Sen. Ron Rice, who once served as Newark’s police director.

“We will fix the resources that’s impacting the issues that’s impacting the Black and brown community, which we understand because we are Black and brown people,” said Rice.

Grewal is currently involved in a court fight with police unions over releasing 20 years’ worth of police officer disciplinary records. A court order has halted its release.

“The mere fact that an officer was suspended does not mean he or she is a bad person, or even a bad law enforcement officer. Plenty of people make mistakes in their lives and they grow from that experience and they turn their careers around,” Grewal said.

But opponents of Grewal’s plan say that it would unfairly target officers and their families.

“If you release the names, they’re shamed. They are. They’ll be in the local [news]. They’ll be in the rest. I’d like to think life is better that way, but they’ll be shamed and their families will be shamed,” said Cryan.

Grewal also plans to license police officers statewide and rewrite police use-of-force policies.

“I cannot promise that these changes will be easy or popular. But real reforms rarely are,” he said.