THE RIDGEWOOD BLOG.
The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
Freeholders to discuss today possible elimination of Bergen County police
file photo Boyd Loving
Freeholders to discuss today possible elimination of Bergen County police
August 10,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ ,The Bergen County Freeholders will hold a meeting today to discuss an ordinance that would eliminate the Bergen County Police, if approved.
Freeholders Maura DeNicola and Robert Hermansen both boycotted last weeks scheduled freeholder meeting after the ordinance was introduced . This left the Freeholder Board was left without a quorum making them unable to vote upon the proposed ordinance as well as a resolution calling for the question to be placed on the ballot.
The Freeholder board is expected to have a quorum at 2 p.m. today. DeNicola said she plans to be there. The Bergen Record quoted DeNicola on Friday saying she would support county government commissioning a poll to determine what residents think about whether to merge the county police into the sheriff’s deparment. ( http://www.northjersey.com/news/Freeholders_will_discuss_ordinance_about_Bergen_County_police.html )
DeNicola has repeated her opposition to putting the matter to the voters in the form of a non-binding referendum on the general election ballot in November because she feels that would inject politics into the discussion.
Both DeNicola and Hermansen have claimed that the plan to eliminate the Bergen County Police was only given to them too last minute to make any kind of an educated decision while eliminate the Bergen County Police has been in and out of the news almost everyday for the last two years
Most observers think this is more of an internal BCRO matter than battle over ideas. Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin has been fueding Freeholders Maura DeNicola and Rob Hermansen for some time .
To most taxpayer the Bergen County Police seem an unnecessary waste , spending there time hiding out near the meadowlands sports complex giving specious traffic tickets . Most towns in Bergen County field well equipped if not over equipped Police Departments ,unlike inner city police departments like Newark , Camden, Paterson, jersey City and Passaic who are significantly understaffed and under funded .
