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Drug officers approached Domique Giddings, 30, of Paterson as he sat in the 2000 Honda Accord near the corner of Mary Street and Polifly Road at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Capt. Frank Aquila said.
The officers ordered Giddings out of the car after they spotted a vial of cocaine in the driver's side door handle and smelled pot, Aquila said.
As he got out, the captain said, Giddings grabbed the crack vial and stuck it in his left jacket pocket.
The officers ordered Giddings to pull out his hand, but he "instead clenched both fists" and refused, Aquila said.
Giddings -- who was on parole for first-degree armed robbery with a handgun -- then resisted before backups helped take him into custody, the captain said.
A search of the car turned up two other crack vials, a plastic bag of crack, another bag that held marijuana, 40 wax folds of heroin and several Oxycodone pills, along with empty clear plastic vials used for selling crack, Aquila said.
A judge in Hackensack released Giddings pending further court action, under New Jersey's 2017 bail reform law.
The law was intended to prevent the release of high-level drug dealers and dangerous criminals who were able to post any amount of bail while poorer defendants languished in jail awaiting trial.
Although judges often attach conditions, law enforcement authorities say the reforms have created an unending "catch and release" that allows repeat offenders to continue victimizing the public while police resources that could be used to protect it are tied up.
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