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Pending the expected approval of county freeholders, what was the BCPD becomes the Bureau of Police Services.
How best to carry out that consolidation will mostly be determined Sheriff Michael Saudino.
Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco signs MOA (PHOTO: Michael Pagan)
That includes reducing what will become a combined total of 255 officers to 201 through attrition, under the terms of a Memoradium of Agreement signed this morning by Tedesco — in his first official act as county executive — along with the sheriff and Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli.
It includes appointing a Bureau of Police commander who “shall retain the same rank and become responsible for the day to day operation” of the bureau, handling all of the “daily functions, assignments and responsibilities” that previously were the job of the county police chief.
Several other key changes:
• The BCPD SWAT team will be folded into the Regional SWAT team — made up of members of the sheriff’s and prosecutor’s offices and local police departments — to create two brand-new units, rather than have those 17 officers assigned to current squads (more below);
• While K-9 officers trained in detecting accelerants will automatically be absorbed, all other canine services provided by the BCPD will be abolished once the dogs that now do so die or are retired — with their handlers returning to patrol duty, possibly without four-legged partners;
• The county Medical Examiner’s Office will no longer use county police officers — it will shift to an all-civilian support staff;
• Some of the 13 current investigators in the BCPD’s Detective Unit will move into the BCSO Bureau of Criminal Identification, the sheriff’s forensic unit. The BCPD’s three juvenile officers also could be reassigned;
• The BCPD’s Water Search and Recovery unit could be eliminated, given that local firefighters provide many of its functions and “the cost of maintaining such a unit is high”;
• Sheriff’s officers will be trained in the highway safety functions that previously had been the sole province of the BCPD;
• IT operations will be absorbed by the prosecutor’s office under the same salary and civil service status. A thorough audit of all county law enforcement operations will be done to determine how to consolidate services into an all-inclusive Bergen County Law Enforcement Bureau of Information Technology under the prosecutor’s authority;
• The sheriff will be expected to move officers out of the Office of Emergency Management, which will remain under the authority of the Department of Law & Public Safety and will rely primarily on firefighters, emergency management professionals and technicians;
• The state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Center in Mahwah also remains under the county Department of Law & Public Safety, with a BCPD police lieutenant continuing to oversee the operation (as a member of the Bureau of Police Services) and two other county police officers reassigned within the bureau.
The sheriff also must transfer his current dispatching operations responsibilities to the county Communications Center and have it handle all dispatches going forward, the memo signed this morning says.
Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino (CLIFFVIEW PILOT PHOTOS)
One of the more dramatic changes will involve the Bergen County Police Academy, which the agreement says has “relied too much upon the presence of BCPD officers for its operation.”
The agreement requires the sheriff and the county prosecutor, along with the Bergen County Chiefs Association and the county’s individual police chiefs, to “maintain a fairly divided responsibility for training at the Academy, including in-service training and recruit training.
“[N]o instructors who occupy law enforcement positions, retired or otherwise, from outside of Bergen County shall be utilized by the Academy for training purposes,” it says
The prosecutor — and not the director of Law and Public Safety — also becomes the supreme authority for the academy’s operations. Although the director ultimately answers to the county executive, the agreement requires him or her to report directly to the prosecutor “as it relates to providing day-to-day training services.”
The prosecutor also has the final say on any and all academy-related disputes among the chiefs, their association, the sheriff or the Law & Public safety director, it says.
No one will lose his or her job or take a pay cut as a result of the consolidation — unless you take into account two retired law enforcement officers who worked as security guards for Tedesco’s predecessor, Kathleen Donovan. Tedesco says such protection won’t be necessary for him.
No changes will be made to the existing labor contracts, under the agreement.
The MOA acknowledges that adding the estimated 103 current BCPD officers to the 152 officers that Saudino already has is “far in excess” of the amount needed to police the county, based on figures provided by individual police departments. So it calls for reducing 54 positions through attrition of all officers under the sheriff’s authority.
It is believed that as many as 20 BCPD officers eligible for retirement will pursue jobs with local police departments.
Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli (CVP PHOTO)
Once the total drops to 201, Saudino will be able to replace bureau police officers with sheriff’s officers, under the agreement.
He can also fill jobs that require specialized skills at any time, with approval from the county executive, it says.
Any current BCPD officer approved for a transfer to sheriff’s officer or investigator in the prosecutor’s office would keep accrued vacation, sick personal and comp time.
Current BCPD employees who handle records, payroll and human resources will be reassigned within the county “unless they provide services unique to law enforcement in a paralegal or agent capacity,” the agreement says. The latter “shall continue within the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office,” with locations determined by the sheriff.
Two BCPD mechanics will be reassigned to the county garage, it says.
The new Bureau of Police Services “shall remain as a completely separate unit within the law enforcement network, [except] for the fact that its operations will now be overseen by the Bergen County Sheriff as opposed to the Bergen County Executive and/or Director of Law & Public Safety,” the agreement says. “All conditions, contracts and agreements in which the County of Bergen previously reached on behalf of the BCPD shall continue to exist without change.”
The intent, it says, is to “maintain, at this time, the entire BCPD and only to transfer the person or entity to which they are to be governed. That is, this Agreement does not abolish the Bergen County Police Department.”
Saudino will “have all authority to direct its day-to-day operations, including uniforms, assignments, hiring, retention, discipline and responsibilities,” the memorandum says.
The agreement requires that the county continue to provide security at the colleges under the sheriff’s command.
It also eliminates the use of county police officers to augment the Medical Examiner’s Office, which will remain a division of Law & Public Safety. The ME will hire civilians to fulfill those tasks, the agreement says.
Internal affairs and civilian security remain the same.
PHOTO: Michael Pagan
The nine-member BCPD Bomb Squad (3 sergeants, 6 officers) also remains intact, under the agreement.
The SWAT team arrangement was made because the BCPD team members “have not trained with the regional members,” the agreement says. “[T]o simply place them individually across all of the other SWAT units would not be appropriate at this time.
“However, over the course of the next year, all SWAT members currently employed at the BCPD shall undero training with other members of the Regional SWAT team and, after such training, all members of the Regional SWAT team and former BCPD SWAT team members shall be reassigned such that there no longer will exist any defined tactical units within the Regional SWAT team that are made up exclusively of former BCPD officers,” it says.
The lieutenant who currently oversees the BCPD SWAT unit will be made deputy commander of the regional team, under the agreement. Unit sergeants will be made team leaders or deputy team leaders after completing necessary training, “all of which is in recognition of the outstanding training and work that has been provided by the BCPD SWAT team,” it says.
“The 5 snipers [who] currently work with the BCPD SWAT team shall automatically become part of the sniper unit with the Regional SWAT Team,” the agreement states. “[T]he 8 members of the crisis negotiation team will remain intact, recognizing the unique training that this team receives as a unit.”
The sheriff also assumes complete authority and control over all BCPD facilities and equipment — and will have them repainted, while making necessary changes to badges, uniforms and other property to rebrand them under the BCSO.
Tedesco said he hopes the pact signed this morning puts an end to the stream of lawsuits that were primarily brought by Donovan.
“This is the right thing to do,” he repeated after the deal was executed in a brief ceremony in the freeholder caucus room at the Bergen County Administration Building in Hackensack.
Saudino previously told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that he considers the move “a common-sense way to provide millions in property tax relief for Bergen County taxpayers without compromising public or officer safety.”
Although Tedesco said consolidation of police services will save at least $90 million and possibly $200 million over 25 years, there’s more to it than money.
“[A]n equally significant factor is the need to replace redundancies, to become more efficient in the manner in which police services are provided by county govermment and to actually seize upon opportunities to expand such services offered to the residents of Bergen County through this realignment,” the memo says.
The sheriff will “devise a plan whereby County police patrol services will be deployed on a sector basis throughout all of Bergen County, thus improving response times at area colleges and other County owned or operated buildings,” it says.
Saudino will also “make these officers more accessible to the municipal police departments for purposes of backup, force multiplier services, faster specialized services and prisoner transportation.”
The agreement gives the BCPD 60 days from today to “conduct a full audit and examination of all aspects of its operations.”
“This shall include, but shall not be limited to a complete evidence inventory, inventory of equipment, cars, communication equipment, weaponry, technology and other items utilized by the BCPD in the providing of police services,” it says.
It also requires “an up-to-date inventory of all ongoing investigation, both criminal and internal affairs,” as well as “an assessment of all existing BCPD policies, written directives and evidence of other rules concerning the conduct of officers within the Department, both on duty and off duty.”
Saudino, in the end, must be satisfied that he has “a complete understanding of the manner in which the BCPD operated from an administrative, operational and strategic standpoint,” the agreement says. He then will “merge or consolidate” all evidence, records, personnel files, as well as all training, human resources, logistics, internal affairs, communication and other aspects of the BCPD into his office, it says.
The agreement stems from a resolution approved by the freeholder board in October 2013 following a study by a group that included Molinelli, Saudino and current and retired law enforcement officers, as well as Tedesco and two fellow freeholders.
The freeholders are expected to approve the consolidation.
The initial savings the first and second year will modest but will increase over time through retirements, drafters of the blueprint said.
Two long-term savings projections have been offered: One takes into account keeping all 524 officers in the two departments and saves at least $90 million a year over 25 years, and another figures in attrition that drops the number to 480, promising a whopping $200 million a year in savings over the same period.
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