Task Force to Present Regionalized Policing Update

A closer look at the future of regionalized policing in Somerset County will be presented Monday afternoon by a special task force.

Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey D. Soriano, Task Force Vice Chairman Dr. Richard Celeste and the heads of the task force’s subcommittees are expected to update the activities since the group presented in December a study that recommended a regionalized system.

The prosecutor’s task force on Regionalized Policing is comprised of 70 individuals on six different subcommittees. Members include municipal managers, citizens at large, elected officials, police chiefs and police union representatives.

Freeholder Jack Ciattarelli, who has been a strong supporter of regionalized policing, explained the county had budgeted $100,000 over three years to review policing in Somerset County.

Phase 1 and 2 focused on feasibility analyses, with members of the task force and the consulting firm visiting all 19 of the county’s police departments, identifying comparisons in the region, reviewing research and analyzing the information.

The ultimate goal, Ciattarelli said, is twofold: “To create a regional law enforcement agency that takes what is already a great service and makes it better and, in doing so, to save tax dollars.”

“Many people think that these feasibility analyses are strictly about saving tax dollars, but that’s not so. It is more about taking the existing law enforcement services and making it better,” he said.

The regionalized policing model proposed by the consultant, Ciattarelli said, “provides a pretty compelling case that it can be done.” He added, however, that there are “matters to be addressed to perfectly size the model.”

The December 2010 report recommended the establishment of three regional police districts in Somerset County: North (to be located in Bernards), Central (headquartered in Bridgewater) and South (based in Franklin) and a Central Office of Chief, with centralized dispatch, investigation and special squads.

The estimated budgetary impact would be savings of $17.8 million from the 2010 combined police budgets of $104.1 million. This does not take into account potential savings from reduced facility, equipment and overhead requirements.

County municipalities already share some services, such as emergency 911, dispatch, criminal investigation, specialty squads (such as SWAT, Dive, Arson), training academy, jail operations and prison transport.