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Raymond Guidetti, who retired as a lieutenant colonel after a highly distinguished career with the New Jersey State Police, began working last week, multiple department and city sources confirmed Tuesday.
"We've been getting memos from him already on things like internal policies and expectations," one department member said.
Guidetti, 54, of Paramus, was officially appointed to the position for three years at Monday night's Mayor and Council meeting, according to city spokesman Nick Bond.
“I am very proud to have been selected for this important position leading a dedicated group of men and women,” Guidetti said in a release issued by Bond. “The City of Hackensack is a great place to live and work, which is why I viewed this as an exciting opportunity to use what I’ve learned throughout my career in law enforcement."
“We are very pleased to have a man of Raymond’s caliber leading the men and women of the Hackensack Police Department,” Mayor John Labrosse said in the same news release, issued after Daily Voice reported Guidetti's appointment on Tuesday.
Guidetti's appointment follows a study of the department's organizational structure, overtime expenses and relations with the community by retired Bergen County Prosecutor's Chief of Detectives Robert Anzilotti through his consulting company, R3 Strategies & Solutions.
Not only have city officials not made Anzilotti's 95-page report public -- union members say it's being kept from them, as well.
The more than 100-member department has withstood criminal investigations and lawsuits filed by nearly two dozen officers against the city and former Police Chief Ken Zisa.
Three officers were accused in 2016 of illegally searching an apartment by creating a bogus pretext. One was fired and two were suspended following a ruling by the state Civil Service Commission.
Hackensack's last police director, Gerard Marinelli, resigned in 2019 after only nine months on the job.
But that's all history, police at all levels say.
New blood has been injected into the department, which keeps trying to move past the continued politics that several members have privately said have challenged morale.
Body cameras are being used and excessive force complaints have dropped. Even Anzilotti said his first impression was that the department itself is "extremely professional."
Yet as one member confided: "Allegedly we have issues that need to be fixed."
Labrosse revealed some of those perceived issues on Tuesday. The mayor said he expects Guidetti to specifically address himself to “enhancing accountability within the police department, improving their response times, and bolstering their relationship with the community.”
Guidetti is well-known and highly respected in law enforcement circles throughout New Jersey and beyond.
His "experience and accomplishments speak for themselves," City Manager Vincent Caruso said in the release.
Guidetti retired from the New Jersey State Police as a lieutenant colonel in June 2018 after nearly 20 years with the agency.
He'd been assigned to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force to work on domestic and international terrorism investigations and investigated and testified about the events of 9/11.Guidetti left the State Police briefly to become the deputy director for the New Jersey Regional Operations & Intelligence Center (NJ ROIC), which serves as the state's primary focal point for information and intelligence sharing.
He oversaw capital planning and expenditures, conducted threat, risk and real-time crime analysis and directed an interstate information-sharing program among key law enforcement organizations at the local, state, and federal levels and the private sector.
Guidetti returned to the State Police in 2014, was promoted to deputy superintendent of investigations and spearheaded several crime-suppression efforts.
After retiring he worked for Motorola as a public safety specialist and, before than, as director of client relations, then operated his own consulting company for more than a year.
Guidetti is a longtime member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and has been a senior policy advisor for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
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