Police say Ocean Twp. department understaffed
PBA: Staffing levels have not changed for 11 years
BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

Council chambers were standing room only last week, packed with off-duty police officers asking for more manpower for Ocean Township’s police department.

“As a union, we feel the department is understaffed,” Kevin Faller, delegate for the Policemen’s Benevolent Association Local 57, told the Oct. 26 council meeting.

“In 11 years there has been no increase in staffing. Ocean Township is sandwiched in between the three highest crime-rate towns — Long Branch, Asbury Park and Neptune,” said Faller, who represented the 50 police officers who attended and another 10 who were on duty.

“If we want to stay above everyone else and have the quality of life we enjoy, we have to create a larger police staff, he said.

In the late 1970s the department numbered 61 police officers, and today there are 60 police officers, according to Faller.

The crime rate in Ocean Township has increased by 14.5 percent from 2002 to 2003, he said. There are 27,565 people living in Ocean, which is 11.2 square miles.

“We are doing more work with less men and women,” he said. “The town has grown extensively with the same number of police officers. We are still doing the job.”

“Why do our police officers have to beg to get what they need,” resident Ellen Ades said. “Why do they have to fight for the things they need to do their job.”

Mayor William Larkin said the council fully supports the police department.

“Without the Ocean Township police department this town would not be what it is today,” Larkin said. “We have been asked [to hire more police officers]. All we ask for in return is for justification. We have never had justification for the request.”

The police department also wants access to information about what the department’s complement should be.

The information is contained in a study of candidates to replace outgoing Police Chief Robert E. Swannack.

Swannack has announced his retirement, effective Jan. 1, after serving the department for 32 years.

A $9,000, township-funded study was conducted to assess six candidates from the township police department to replace Swannack, according to Dave Kochel, the town manger.

“We were about to go through the transition with the anticipation of Chief Swannack’s retirement, so we decided to get an outside perspective,” he said. “We were looking for guidance in deciding the department’s future.”

The study was conducted by Thomas Michaud, a former police chief, and Robert Casey, a retired municipal administrator.

The study was made public with about 15 pages blacked out.

The redacted portion was “information that we [the council] would be seeking from the candidates to replace Swannack to get their independent views,” Kochel explain

Faller said the department wants the information on the redacted 15 pages of the study released as public information.

“If there is a number of the amount of police officers [suggested by the candidates for the police department] in this study, we want to know,” Faller said. “Why is that number a secret?”

According to Faller, a separate study conducted by the department to determine how many officers are needed to patrol a town, which calculated the minutes an officer works, patrols, eats, is on crime scenes and writes reports, revealed that the department requires 71 officers,

“I want to know that my men and women are protected when they are out there,” Faller said. “I want to know the township is protected.”

Larry S. Loigman, an attorney and Ocean Township resident, presented the council with a lawsuit seeking access to the reports at the council meeting.

The suit, filed on Oct. 22 in state Superior Court in Freehold, lists Loigman as plaintiff, and the township and Kochel as defendants.

He is also seeking a statutory penalty for an OPRA (Open Public Records Act) violation.

“I faxed a request to the Ocean Township Town Hall on Oct. 11, and I received a response from the clerk that said I could have a redacted copy [of the report],” Loigman said. “I heard there was a problem with manpower in the police department and I wanted to see what was going on, and the report was the key to that information.”

“By the end of November the process [selecting a chief] should be complete and we can all see the recommendations,” Larkin said. “We are looking for what is best for Ocean Township and what is best for the Ocean Township Police Department.”