Newtown Township's 'Officer Jules' Retires After 40 Years In Policing

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Newtown Township Police Officer Jules Ferraro was in his element as he gave out stickers to youngsters at the Middletown Grange Fair.

As kids and parents surrounded him, the 72 year old officer didn’t miss a beat, handing out sticker after sticker and making sure that each child got one.

It seemed appropriate that his last duty as an officer would be at the Grange Fair where he could interact one final time with youngsters, parents and the community before heading off to retirement.

After 40 years in law enforcement, including the past 13 years with Newtown Township, Ferraro is retiring his badge and planning to enjoy the quieter side of life with his family.

He will also continue to volunteer at the Washington Crossing National Cemetery as a member of the Guardians, a group that renders honors to veterans being interred there.

Jules has become a familiar face in the Newtown community, especially among the kids who loved it when he stopped by their schools to read them a story.

“Every child in Newtown and Wrightstown knows that man. And not only do they know him, they love him. And they respect him. And that is what a good community police officer is all about,” said District Judge Mick Petrucci.

Even those who found themselves on the other side of a ticket appreciated his demeanor and his personality, which just came naturally.

“I have literally seen him on the road issuing a citation to somebody and because of his demeanor and his personality people will say thank you,” said Petrucci.

“I have known Officer Ferraro way before I was a judge or a constable and he has never changed. He is always a top notch guy,” added Petrucci. “You meet him and you want to be friends with him. And that is what he is all about. Jules has been a stellar figurehead in our community. Those are going to be some big, big shoes to fill.”

Jules began his career as a patrol officer working the streets in West Philadelphia’s 19th district. Seven years later he joined the K-9 unit and he and his new four-legged partner put paws to the pavement.

In 1995 he joined the K-9 training staff where he spent the next decade training police dogs and their handlers not just in the city, but throughout the Philadelphia suburbs and beyond.

“That was probably the highlight of my career - training police dogs,” said Ferraro, a nationally certified K-9 trainer. “Philadelphia was a regional training facility. I trained dogs for as far north as Massachusetts. We trained New Jersey and the Pennsylvania State Police. We did Montgomery and Delaware County plus all the departments in Bucks.

“The rewarding part was watching the teams grow from being raw to being K-9 handlers,” said Ferraro. “I liked being with the dogs. Dogs are pure. They are honest.”

After retiring from the Philadelphia Police Department in 2005, he deployed overseas for one year to Baghdad, Iraq where he worked as a police advisor and K-9 trainer for DynCorp International, an American private military contractor.

When Ferraro returned home in 2006 he started his own police dog training business. Because he was training police dogs he needed to retain his Master Police Officer rank so he joined the Newtown Borough Police Department as a part-time officer under Police Chief Tony Wojciechowski. For the next two years he patrolled the streets of the borough from 2007 to 2009.

In 2009, Ferraro applied for and was hired by the Newtown Township Police Department where he quickly found his niche in community-based policing.

“Going into the classrooms and being with the kids plugged me in and got me prepared for the stresses of the day. And then at the end of the day they brought me down to Earth with high-fives and fist bumps,” said Ferraro.

While never designated as a community officer, it was a job he kind of fell into “because it was something that I wanted to do.”

In Philadelphia, while Ferraro was a K-9 officer, he would frequently stop in the neighborhoods with his K-9 partner because he knew the kids would enjoy petting the dog and tossing him a ball. “It was something I could do to get the community to understand that I wasn’t just there to lock people up. I was there to be out there with them.”

In Newtown, Ferraro frequently stopped by the kindergarten classes at Saint Andrew School to read to the kids. His other regular stops included Goodnoe and Wrightstown elementary schools.

“All that reading, all that time in the schools was made possible by my supervisors,” he said. “These guys are out there doing jobs and I’m inside reading to the kids. So I’d like to express my thanks to them for allowing me to do it.”

In addition to his community policing skills, Jules brought to the beat a background in crisis intervention and as a certified crisis negotiator.

“You can run the whole day in Newtown and maybe respond to four or five radio calls. But there are those moments when you are really needed,” said Jules. “In those situations God gave me the ability to speak to people and deescalate. I have the words. I have the training, but when it gets down to it I really believe it’s God working through me.”

When asked if he ever had to fire his gun during his 40 year career, Ferraro politely asks to change the subject preferring to talk about the positives.

One of the biggest challenges of police work, says Jules, is having to change your demeanor on a dime.

“You may have just left a very stressful scene and now you get another radio call. You need to be able to leave the stress of that other call and have the ability to not take it with you,” he said.

“Maybe you just left a domestic situation and now you’re taking a lost dog report. You can’t bring one frustration to the next. It’s tough to be able to do that,” he said.

He recalled one incident where he later called a resident to apologize.

“I would hate to live on Stoopville Road in the snow. There goes your mailbox, your ornaments. This guy had property damage. That day it was snowing and it was very stressful. I’m at the guy’s house to take his report. I wasn’t belligerent, but I was short with him. When I drove away I thought, ‘You were pretty ignorant. You didn’t handle that like you should have.’ So I called him on the phone and apologized. He really appreciated that. And it was important for me to let him know I’m not that guy.”

He said one of the highlights of his career took place while he was patrolling a street in Philadelphia and he saw two little kids playing in an abandon vehicle.

“I read them the riot act for playing in the abandoned cars,” he said. “That ended up building a relationship with the girl and her mom. That all happened in the 90s. I eventually lost touch with the family. Around 2013 I got a Facebook message from Jennifer asking if this is the Ferraro who was in K-9. She told me that I had such an impact when she was a little girl that she wanted me to be a part of her children’s lives. That’s amazing,” he said. “I’ve had a great career.”

So did he catch a lot of bad guys during his career?

“I was a plain clothes officer in Philadelphia for about five years. I made a lot of arrests back in those days. Up here in Newtown, thank God, we have our moments, but most of the time we spend on patrol, which is the amazing thing about working here. It’s a good community to work in. And I’m going to miss it.”

In between calls, Ferraro always found the time to put his community policing hat on.

“If I would see a little kid riding in a toy car on the sidewalk I’d put my dome lights on and pull him over, just to be part of their lives,” Ferraro says with a smile, “and to let them see that the police are not just badges and uniforms. We’re moms and dads, brothers and sisters. Now I’m a grand pop.”

Unfortunately, in the city where his kind of community policing is needed the most, there just isn’t time.

“There has always been a thrust within police work to build better communities but the problem is on a Friday when a cop breaks roll call he has 35 jobs pending and they are still coming in,” said Ferraro. “How do you get out of your police car and do community relations? I don’t care how
much training you get you just don’t have the time to get out of the police car and talk to people. I know cops try. They want to. Out here it’s different. You have the ability to do that in between radio calls.

Among his favorite volunteer duties each year is Shop With A Cop, which pairs officers with a disadvantaged youngster on a pre-holiday shopping spree.

Each kid is given $200 to spend and is paired with a cop who offers advice as they shop for gifts. Ferraro loves it so much that he plans to be back this December as a civilian volunteer.

“They know they have so much money to spend, yet they are buying stuff for mom and dad and not even thinking about themselves. We have to tell them to buy something for themselves,” he said. “And none of those kids are there because they are affluent. It’s because they won’t have anything under the Christmas tree.“

So what is he going to miss the most?

“I’m gonna miss the kids. Am I going to miss the late calls? Am I gonna miss the five vehicle accidents? No. What I’m going to miss are the kids and the camaraderie with the guys on my squad.”

Married for 51 years to his wife, Christine, Jules has two children, Sere and Jules, and one grandchild, Wilder.