Centralized County Police Force Talks Under Way

The Bridgewater Police Department is on the vanguard of a shared services arrangement that would make it the center of a precinct for four Somerset County towns.

Bridgewater's anticipated precinct, to be known as Precinct No. 3, would be a core part of a five-precinct Somerset County centralized police force that could go into effect in early 2012.

Discussions to date have called for Precinct No. 3, which will be headquartered in Bridgewater, to include the municipalities of Bound Book, Branchburg, Raritan and Somerville.

“This is the wave of the future," said Bridgewater Township Police Chief Richard Borden. “Everyone throughout the state and the country is looking into saving money. I think this is no doubt going to be looked into by numerous different counties as the years progress. This is something that cannot be avoided.”

Borden, who admitted that the plan is “still somewhat in its infancy stage,”  said it would require that each municipality buy into it.

Even the selection of Bridgewater as Precinct No. 3 headquarters is not final, but at the Nov. 3 township council meeting, council president Howard Norgalis said that Bridgewater is the frontrunner for headquarter designation. 

“At this point, based on the other locations that would probably be a part of this precinct, it would probably be our location [that is selected],” Norgalis said. “We have the newest, largest and probably the best facility.”

Borden said that a centralized police force would include the core services present in individual departments, such as a patrol division, a detective bureau, a traffic division and evidence bureau, and it would utilize a central dispatch system. Borden said talks had not yet progressed far enough to select a location for the dispatch.

Core to an efficient and effective centralized police force would be a balanced allocation of resources based on the most active crime zones in the precinct and the county. How a centralized police force would effectively protect two or three hot spots or even incidents simultaneously will take some planning.

“Once the precinct was formulated, we would have to break down how many officers we are putting in this precinct and then it would come down to studies on a local level, where the allocation of the manpower should be going,” Borden said. “A decision would then be made. Each precinct would have to do it’s own crime study to say where the most crime is taking place or where are the highest number of traffic problems are. The entire precinct would have to be looked at and studied.”

Borden said other considerations include a municipality’s proximity to the centrally located headquarters, in order to consider officer dispatch travel times.

Jack Bennett, spokesman for the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office, declined to discuss details of the plan until they are finalized.

Until then there are few answers. At the council meeting, councilman Matthew Moench raised several questions that Norgalis said cannot be answered until further conversations take place at the county level.

“I would have many more questions," he said. "Is the county going to reimburse us for the cost of this facility, what kind of fees are we going to get from the county and what kind of expenses are we going to have?"

Borden said the county prosecutor’s office will make an announcement when plans are finalized.