Green Brook Weighing Options on Police Consolidation Study

Green Brook Chief of Police Martin Rasmussen gave a review of the proposed police consolidation to the Township Committee at the May 21 meeting, noting the impacts of some of the report's projections.  

The report, released April 12 by a task force headed by Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano, called for the county’s 19 municipal police departments to come together in a single department divided into five precincts.

Green Brook would be in a precinct with North Plainfield, Watchung and Warren. A total of 133 officers would serve a population of 50,981 spread over 33.1 miles. That comes out to a total of 2.6 officers per thousand residents. According to the report, the precinct would also have the highest crime rate of the five precincts, with 22.94 crimes per 1,000 residents. 

The report also estimates that Green Brook would save $1,685,737 over a decade.

The study also found that the township’s current police headquarters would not be used because of flooding potential. However, Green Brook’s courtroom would be utilized as the precinct’s municipal court.

“We would lose our building; Green Brook Police would be gone,” Chief Rasmussen said. “The police station would be in Watchung, we [Green Brook] would be the courthouse."

While the four municipalities in the proposed precinct have until Aug. 1 to notify the county of any interest in joining the consolidation, Green Brook representatives, including Mayor Jerry Searfoss, said they will discuss it further at the June 18 meeting.

In his presentation, Chief Rasmussen brought up numerous questions that he said remain unanswered, as well as many things that are purely “speculative” in the report.

“The assumption is that 137 officers will retire within the next six years,” he reported. “That’s just an assumption—we don’t know that. It should be broken down yearly. The report says that 27 and a half years was the average years-of-service until retirement. We have 11 or so within the next three, four years that are eligible.”

Township Administrator Kelly G. Cupit noted the report talks about averages, but not about the economy.

“Well, we have to think about the economy," she said. "Officers won’t be retiring if they can’t afford to."

Chief Rasmussen also said the report notes some civilian jobs associated with the police departments would be eliminated in the plan. 

“The plan calls for them (the county) to borrow $20 million,” Chief Rasmussen said. “They will then lay off 50 civilians within the county, once the process is finished. The buildings still need to be built.”

Speaking in an interview after the meeting, Chief Rasmussen said that which jobs would be affected is unclear at this point, as that would be determined by a group put in place after the consolidation begins.

“There will be a representative from each municipality,” Chief Rasmussen said in an interview this week. “There are 21 mayors, from those, there are six that are picked to be part of the appropriate authority. They will be in charge of all of those decisions.”

Chief Rasmussen said there would be a satellite station in North Plainfield, and some "functional use in Warren.”

With all of these questions remaining, the chief urged the township committee to continue to communicate and get as many thoughts on the plan as possible. At the committee meeting, Chief Rasmussen recommended the committee members talk to their peers "to see if we have a consensus."  

“The more people that look at it, the better off we will be," he said this week. "We have read this thing numerous times, but we may have still missed something. It hasn’t been done before, we are the prototype.”

The report is available on the Somerset County website.