Police Department Launches New Website

In an effort to enhance law enforcement communication with the public, police department has launched a new, more modern website. 

The new Internet presence replaces a website that was originally published in August of 2000. Chief of Police Brian Klimakowski said that the new website should save residents and the department time and hassle.

“The purpose of this website is to keep the community informed about current police related information and the wide variety of services that we provide here in Manchester Township," Klimakowski said. "It has been designed to not only make the Police Division more transparent, but also to make frequently used information easily accessible."

The previous website was "outdated," the chief said, and was difficult for the department and residents to use.

"There isn't a whole lot of information on it," Klimakowski told Patch in March as the new site was being developed. "It's not very user-friendly for us to go in there and update the information and it's not very easy for people to navigate."

Information on various department bureaus, forms and applications will be available online through the site, www.manchesterpolicenj.com. For example, residents can print firearms applications and OPRA and records requests forms at home and then submit them to the township clerk's office. 

With more information available online, the hope is to free up resources in the already short-staffed department.

"This will afford [office staff] more time because they'll have to handle a lot less questions on the telephone," Klimakowski said. "Everything can be done, more or less, on the web.

In late February, the township council approved a resolution authorizing a $7,360 contract with Web Alliance International Inc. in Toms River for the design of new township and police websites. That cost is divided among the two, with the police portion costing about $3,000, according to Klimakowski.

The firm was chosen because the department was "impressed" by the company's work, according to the chief. 

"[We are] very pleased with the outcome of the new police website," Klimakowski said. 

Three years of web hosting for the police department website through Godaddy.com cost $422.84, according to the March 12 township council bill list. The website could have been hosted internally on township servers, but Klimakowski said that it is more cost-effective to host it externally and use township equipment to run a web-based officer scheduling system. 

The new online home of the department will be "much more interactive," the chief said.

"Our goal is to put a tremendous amount of information on the website, so hopefully it will reduce pedestrian traffic coming into headquarters for different items," Klimakowski said. "There will be a lot of information about what's going on in town."