Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli details plan for merging County Police and Sheriff’s Office
JANUARY 14, 2015, 9:08 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015, 9:14 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli told the freeholders Wednesday that a plan to fold the County Police into the Sheriff’s Office will not only save money but will also make county law enforcement more efficient.
In a presentation at the board’s work session, Molinelli predicted that response times to calls for service will go down because of the way patrol vehicles will be deployed by the new combined department.
The new force will patrol the county by sectors, Molinelli said. That will be an improvement over the current setup where County Police patrol mostly county roads and facilities, he said.
“That’s not a negative on the County Police, they are an outstanding department,” Molinelli said.
But combining the two departments will create other efficiencies that will improve public safety.
When a small municipal department arrests someone in the middle of the night, he said, that town’s patrol officers often have to transport that person to the County Jail in Hackensack.