Bernards Township Police Department Turns 100

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Bernards Township Police Department will be celebrating 100 years of serving the local community on Wednesday, April 10, 2019.

Taking a look back at where the department came from, Brooks Betz a Trustee of The Historical Society of the Somerset Hills and June Kennedy a former Bernards Township Volunteer Historian compiled research about the local police into a recent article to celebrate the anniversary.

In 1868, about 130 years ago, before the police department was even established there was a Basking Ridge-Millington Detective Society which used the bells from the Presbyterian Church in Basking Ridge to summon volunteers for urgent services.

The society was not made up of professionals but rather regular citizens who all had full time day jobs and would patrol at night. Most of the arrests were of Germans, Italians and Irish, who mostly were getting into trouble with liquor. Arrests could be for public drunkenness, petty thievery and assault and battery, horse thievery, and house robberies.

It wasn't until April 1919 when the Bernards Township Committee adopted an ordinance establishing the Bernards Township Police Department, which included protecting areas such as Basking Ridge, Liberty Corner, Far Hills, Lyons and Bernardsville.

In 1919, Mayor Peter V. Stryker was officially named Police Chief while John A. Roebling of Bernardsville was chosen as Assistant Chief of Police.

To see the full history of the Bernards Township Police Department check out Betz's article here.

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