Hackettstown (NJ) police need support

[Kire]

Hackettstown police need support
Daily Record - NOVEMBER 24, 2008

The Hackettstown PBA Local 369 is very proud of the longstanding relationship that exists between our officers and residents. Because this relationship is so important to us, we now ask for your help.

The Hackettstown Police Department has dipped to a manpower level not seen since 30 years ago. We fear that this lack of officers may jeopardize important programs and levels of service. Even worse, we believe that the safety of our residents and officers is being compromised. Future retirements will bring our manpower levels even lower. This dangerous situation must be corrected now.

As we all know times are hard. And in times such as these, we have seen the effect on crime rates and types of crimes being committed. Many residents have expressed concern to us; some are afraid to walk down Main Street at night. Without the replacement of officers, foot patrol may no longer be possible. Response times will certainly be affected by the common practice of having only two officers on patrol during many times. Officers on duty can be occupied at a call for service for hours at a time, leaving no officers on patrol or able to respond quickly to another call. The obvious problem with this is that both the public and officers are put in an unsafe situation.

We wish to continue to provide residents with the same level of service and safety they have always enjoyed and absolutely deserve. The next town council meeting is tonight at 7:30 p.m. We ask residents to attend to show support for their police officers and safety. The PBA is asking our town council to replace only the vacant positions. We feel that this is a reasonable request and hope that our elected officials will meet their obligation to the voters.

Brian Ficarra

President PBA Local 369

Hackettstown

There is discussion in the comments section: http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20081124/OPINION02/811240313/1095/OPINION

This is also being discussed in two threads in HackettstownLife.com.

http://www.hackettstownlife.com/forum/69639

and

Hackettstown PBA asks for your help
http://www.hackettstownlife.com/forum/67567

Finally, I have gone into greater detail on BlueJersey.

Please read this diary:

http://www.bluejersey.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=9813

Sincerely,

Erik B. Anderson
Independence Township, New Jersey
Established 1782

[BlooInBloo]

1. I'd be *more* than happy to support them...

Just as soon as they renounce and reject all use of tasers & similar, and run a 100%-transparent-to-public-scrutiny shop.

Until then they can fuck the hell off.

[Kire]

3. I'll try and tell them you said this...

We've got a lot of problems...I'm not sure if this is the highest priority, but I will definitely keep it in mind when I talk to them. It very well could come up.

Thanks,
Erik

[BlooInBloo]

5. No problem!

[trollybob]

2. Perhaps if the police are so concerned about public safety

they should quit wasting time arresting people for bullshit drug offenses and other victimless crimes and focus their resources on what's really important. Likewise, maybe the residents could stop calling the cops every time they have some petty little squabble with their spouses or their neighbors.

[Kire]

4. Our town just changed the drunk and disorderly law yesterday at the meeting.

They finally approved the ordinance to remove the word "alcoholic beverage" from the disorderly persons law. It is not illegal to be drunk in our town, you just can't be disorderly. That is my understanding of it, but I am no lawyer. The Town Clerk/Administrator's number is 908-852-3130. His name is Bill Kuster. He'd be able to explain it better than I can.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. Kire:

The town has a huge police force. One thing Lenny Kunz has done reliably, unlike his record of actually showing up on the job, is grow the hell out of a force that covers a town that is quite small, in numbers of square miles covered. That is known, in the vernacular, as "Empire Building". It reliably breaks town's budgets.

All the NJ municipalities have severe fiscal restraints and the residents are screaming about property tax rates. Independence is now a 24 hr police force, something unheard of in history. Certainly, in crunch times, Independence and, yes, even Washington Twp. and Mansfield cops can respond, as they always have done, as long as I can remember.

Lenny and Brian are simply tubthumping. It's disturbing when your empire building efforts falter, apparently.

And when I first moved to Hackettstown, it had 3 cops, one chief and one Studebaker Lark police car. Hackettstown will survive, in spite of the loud protestations of Lenny and Brian.

[Kire]

7. Thank you for posting this.

Dear Tandy-

I admit that I do not have an entirely clear picture of all that is going on in town. Your observation of what it was like so long ago (you are indeed a very, very old man) is very useful. When did you move to Hackettstown? Over 30 years ago? Because at the meeting last night, and I think in the discussion on Hackettstownlife.com, there was at least one official who said the police force hasn't changed in 30 years. Is this something else that needs to be verified? I go into the municipal building and police station on a regular basis, so if there are questions that need to be asked, I am sure that I can find out for you. PM me if you have any more.

I'd be interested in knowing more about Chief Kunz, he has blown me off on at least one occasion (2 weeks ago, just minutes before someone threw a popcorn ball at my obama sticker covered car - the police report still has wrong information in it). So, I would like to know as many different opinions and observations about the police department as there are out there.

Thanks for finding this post and replying to it.

If there's anything going on in Belvidere that you hear about, by all means, send me note. Please.

Warm Regards,

Erik B. Anderson
White Belt, Issin-Ryu Karate - Once upon a time I was Purple Belt - First Degree.

Enjoy the evening.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

8. Anyone who says...

That the force has not changed in 30 years is either lying or sniffing industrial solvents. It has grown since I moved to the area(When Mansfield had no police force, and Hackettstown was as above) and the biggest growth spike has been under Kunz. Wash. Twp.(Morris) was also a very small force back then.

Look around, as you drive this area. Note all the cops you see. Then, drive around in Eastern PA. Note all the municipal cops you don't see. Then ask yourself why property taxes are so high.

Large police empires are terribly expensive beasts, black holes that suck in money from municipal budgets and from using traffic enforcement as revenue collection instruments.

[Kire]

9. according to PBA PRES 369

on HackettstownLife.com

"Our department was at 22 officers in 2006.
We are currently at 17 as of today's date."

Why don't you go ask him what Industrial Solvents are the best for sniffing... If he doesn't know, I would say he's not doing his job.

http://www.hackettstownlife.com/forum/67567

Warm Regards,

Erik B. Anderson
Independence (I started to write 'Industrial') Township, New Jersey
Established 1782