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Yesterday’s meeting at the Passaic County Police Academy in Wayne underscored how far leaders of law enforcement agencies from throughout the state and various religious faiths have come in understanding one another.
“The great collaboration has led to the resolution of many issues,” Rabbi Abe Friedman, one of the event’s organizers, told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
“We had people at all levels — from the federal Dept of Homeland Security to the State Police, along with county sheriffs, prosecutors and police chiefs — all together in one room talking about how to support one another,” Friedman said.
Bishops, rabbis, ministers and and others were among those in the crowd of 80 or so people who discussed their particular concerns at the 2014 NJ Law Enforcement Pre-Summer Conference.
Friedman praised State Police for becoming more responsive and accommodating to private Hatzalah ambulance service responses to car crashes and other incidents. Hatzalah has 1,200 volunteers — all licensed EMTS — who mostly work at the Jersey Shore and in Union County.
Hatzalah has “all the equipment in their car — heavy-duty equipment, medication, defibrillators,” Friedman said. “An ambulance then backs up the volunteer. They work closely with dispatchers to respond quickly and smoothly.”
In many instances, Hatzalah needs to get quickly to the victims so that the proper religious rites can be observed, he said. That can sometimes conflict with the need to preserve a fatal accident scene for an investigation.
“Hatzalah have to be given access immediately, rabbis must be contacted,” Friedman told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
A greater understanding on both sides of the respective needs has developed, he said.
The DEA and local prosecutor’s offices also talked about heroin — particularly how potent and inexpensive it’s become, leading to a statewide spike in overdose deaths — as well as the scourge of prescription drug abuse.
And the FBI discussed its citizens academy.
The outreach program was launched six years ago by now-retired NJSP Major Al Della Fave, who attended yesterday’s event as spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.
Della Fave “reached out to religious leaders so that both sides could understand one another better,” Friedman said.
The program has grown since then. Benefits have included not only better professional relations but also more personal involvement.
“In many instances, law enforcement members or their families are in personal need of help,” Friedman told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “God forbid that should ever happen, we are there for them.”
Della Fave, in turn, said Freidman doesn’t get involved in the politics of such a venture, amid those who “continually make shameful efforts to undermine or destroy the amazing inroads we have made over the years.
“There are individuals who have lost sight of the communities they serve and now look to serve their own selfish agendas,” he said.
Friedman, meanwhile, “has one goal and one goal only — to build bridges between police and all community leaders in order to bring positive change,’ Della Fave said.
For proof, he told CLIFFVIEW PILOT, observers need look no further than plans by the State Police for a larger meeting for later this year at its headquarters in Hamilton Township.
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