BY COLLEEN P. CLARK
While the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police is not exactly for or against Camden County’s proposed countywide police plan, its executive director said they definitely don’t agree with how they see the process unfolding.
Also unsettling is the negative portrait of Camden County police chiefs being painted by politicians, according to Mitchell C. Sklar.
Last month, the Camden County Police Chiefs Association announced it was walking away from discussions with the county about a proposed countywide police plan because the chiefs felt the plan, which wasn’t transparent enough, was moving forward regardless of their input.
“We don’t discuss matters like it’s a political campaign, so I won’t try to characterize the motives behind the way things are being done (by the county),” Sklar said.
However, that’s not the way he thinks the county has approached the matter, he pointed out.
Sklar, on behalf of all police chiefs, took offense to a line in a recent press release in which Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said the Camden County Police Chiefs Association no longer wanted to be involved because they were more concerned about protecting their own interests.
“The fact is, they are all eligible to retire,” Sklar said. “They have had long, distinguished careers. They could take a well-earned retirement. They live here; their family lives here; the community they spent their entire adult life serving is here.”
Because of that, it is the future he said they are concerned about, not the here and now. Personalizing the issue is counterproductive, he said.
“That may be stuff for politics, but it’s not stuff for policy,” he said. “The policy decisions will be left behind when the personalities leave the scene. That’s why it’s disappointing to see the response, the assault on their character, as opposed to an actual discussion based on the points that they want to make.”
Sklar shared the same thoughts that some Camden County police chiefs have shared. His association “does not have an anti-position” on regionalization, whether the potential plan involves a few towns or the whole county.
“What we do have is, as we have in every aspect of public safety operations, a very strong position in doing things in a professional and thorough manner,” he said. “In this case, it’s studying potentially the creation of one of the largest police departments in the state.”
Press releases and white papers are not enough when it comes to transparency, he said, adding a committee made up of local officials is also not enough to thoroughly audit the process.
“That’s what has raised our concerns,” Sklar said, adding that the thought of creating a countywide force without the help of a feasibility study, experts and independent analysts was reduced to a mere laughing matter during a workshop at the 2011 International Conference on Innovative Solutions for Law Enforcement presented by Penn State in Philadelphia in April.
He said former chiefs from two regional police departments, one in Pennsylvania and one in Canada, spoke of their successes and then brought up the fact that in nearby Camden County, officials were moving full-steam ahead in this fashion.
“When they got done describing the process, the room was laughing. Everyone was laughing but me,” Sklar said.
They of course weren’t laughing at the thought of regionalization, he said, pointing out that there are at least 63 county police organizations across the country, according to U.S. Department of Justice data.
In other words, it can work but “you can’t do it on the cheap and you can’t do it sitting together in a room with a bunch of local officials,” Sklar said. “You wouldn’t allow a high school student to submit a research paper where they came up with all the ideas and there was no verification.
“We don’t take a position that it’s not worth exploring or that government or public officials should not be looking at alternative means,” Sklar added. “But with something as important, complex and costly as public safety services, you can’t do it on the cheap and without outside scrutiny and an audit of what the plans are.”
Camden County officials wholly disputed the claim that the process hasn’t been transparent and that experts have not been involved in discussions, citing several examples of their efforts.
“The county has always proceeded in this process with transparency,” Cappelli said. “We have consulted police chiefs and mayors, statewide public safety experts, Gov. Christie, State Attorney General Paula Dow, Camden County Prosecutor Warren Faulk, Camden County Sheriff Chuck Billingham, and Camden County Public Safety Director Rob Blaker, a former officer in the New Jersey State Police.”
He added the county has formed committees and subcommittees, and has gathered information and reports from police departments and other governmental agencies.
“We have also consulted with the (county) Police Chiefs Association, the local and state FOP and PBA, and outside experts from other counties and states,” Cappelli continued. “All of this has been shared with the committees and subcommittees and they continue to work with this information to finalize a plan. We also produced a draft of a white paper several weeks ago based on the findings of the subcommittees to date at that time and on other data we had gathered and shared.”
That white paper report can be found here.
Cappelli said subcommittees are preparing reports in their respective areas that are expected early this month. If it is shown the county needs an outside expert or consultant, it will be clearly defined by the data and they will look at proceeding in that direction.
“As we have always said, this is a process,” he said. “The county is acting as a facilitator. Joining a countywide force would be totally voluntary and up to each municipality.”
The driving force behind this plan, Cappelli said previously, is that the status quo in current public safety costs is unsustainable for municipalities. Officials had stressed when this idea was first presented that even if just a few towns jumped onboard, it would be considered a success.
