 Posted: Fri, May 29 2009, 10:55 am EDT Post subject: An inside look at police work |
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| An inside look at police work
Thursday, May 28, 2009 12:54 PM EDT By Maria Prato-Gaines, Staff Writer CRANBURY — Residents will get a peek into a day-in-the-life of the Cranbury police at the Township Committee’s next meeting on June 8. Cranbury Police Chief Ed Kahler will cover his organization’s code of ethics, hierarchy and the specific duties of the various departments, including the detective and traffic bureaus, the patrol division and community policing. ”Most people don’t know how the Police Department operates,” he said. “Some people think we just ride around and write tickets but there’s much more to it than that.” Not only does Cranbury hold its officers to the state standards, but the department has a whole set of rules, regulations and qualifiers that officers must live up to as well, Chief Kahler said. ”This goes beyond what they learned in the Police Academy,” he said. “Our standard operating procedures are over 600 pages.” What exactly a department’s needs are in order to operate efficiently is another topic on the discussion block, Chief Kahler said. ”It’s not like it was in the past where you give someone a badge and a gun,” he said. “There’s a lot of unfunded mandates and a lot of misconceptions about what our needs are.” Chief Kahler said he also hopes to highlight that his department is not always the final authority or the lead on an investigation as there are a number of other agencies it must answer to on both the state and federal levels, as well as its dealings with juvenile facilities. ”I hope that (residents) walk away with a complete understanding of what it takes to run a police department,” he said. The Township Committee meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at Township Hall. http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2009/05/28/cranbury_press/news/doc4a1eb864db991499462232.txt |
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