BRICK POLICE NEGOTIATE LINE BETWEEN CRIME, STAFFING

BRICK - Crime is up, the number of cops is down, and that has led to
changes in the police department of what was America's safest city.

A special unit of police officers with an extensive arrest record was
disbanded earlier this month to put more officers in the ranks for
routine patrols.

The four-man Selective Enforcement Team was given the job of gang
suppression throughout the township. The squad was formed about a year
ago to combat rising drug- and gang-related crimes, Police Chief N.
Rick Bergquist said.

During the first six months, the four officers increased drug arrests
by more than 300 percent, the chief said. Drug arrests in 2008 were
only 175, and during 2009 police made 575 drug arrests.

"A lot of those arrests most likely prevented another crime,"
Bergquist said.

Yet the department was running patrols with the minimum number of
officers three times as often as last year. So the chief poached
officers from other units to help fill out the ranks.

There were two Drug Abuse Resistance Education officers running the
drug and alcohol education programs in the fifth grade. Those two cops
also did most of the department's community outreach in addition to
the school programs. Now, there is just one DARE officer. The program
could be eliminated entirely if the pool of officers available for
patrols is further depleted.

A sergeant from the department's Professional Standard Division also
was assigned to the patrol bureau to help round out senior staffing
levels. Professional standards officers are responsible for training
and internal investigations.

In 2007, there were 133 cops in Brick. There are now 125, but that
number fluctuates depending on sick leave or military reserve
deployments, the chief said. Officers have not been replaced as they
have retired during the past three years.

Meanwhile, crime has steadily increased throughout the township since
2005. By 2008, crime had reached a 10-year high, and it's still
increasing. In 2006, Brick was dubbed America's safest city based on
the crime rate for a town of at least 75,000 people, according to
"City Crime Ranking," a publication of Morgan Quinto Press.

From 2005, when crime was at it lowest, to 2007, when the number of
officers was at its highest, the crime rate still rose. That's partly
why the Selective Enforcement Team was created.

"We wanted to attack the crime in two ways," Bergquist said. "We
wanted to go after the users, who are causing the problems, and we
wanted to attack the street gangs, who are controlling the (illegal
drug) supply."

Crime is not only increasing, but the type of crime is also
changing.

Twice in as many years, police officers have had to shoot a suspect.
It was the first time in about 30 years that a police officer needed
to shoot someone.

Some crimes have been notable for their brutality. A couple allegedly
bludgeoned a man living with them, dumped his body in the woods and
set it on fire before going on the lam. (They were captured at a motel
in Pennsylvania.) And about two years ago, a teenage girl beat another
teen girl with a bat before running her over with a sport-utility
vehicle. Advertisement "The shock factor (of those crimes) is more of
an outcome or symptom," Bergquist said. "The town is seeing a change
that we have never seen before, and that goes hand in glove with the
growth in town."

To be sure, most of the crime in town is property crime: robberies and
break-ins. Most of that crime is committed by drug addicts, Bergquist
said. And most of the drugs sold or consumed in the township - heroin,
other opiates and, to a small extent, crack cocaine - have passed
through a street gang at one level or another. How to combat that
problem has become a debate throughout township government.

In May, the Township Council proposed an ordinance to freeze the
number of senior officers at current levels, which would have
eliminated some unfilled positions. Bergquist made an impassioned plea
at that time to leave the department's chain of command alone. The
council never followed through with eliminating positions.

At the same time, the council also debated the merits of a
comprehensive audit of the police department, to which the chief had
no objection. The auditors would not only go over the department's
finances, but they would also examine how it conducts its daily
operations. They would examine manpower, and how it is used. That
audit is being conducted now.

Councilman Brian DeLuca, who is chairman of the council's Public
Safety Committee, had asked for that audit since he was elected to his
first term in 2007. He found an ally in calling for the audit in
Councilman Domenick Brando, who was elected to his first term in 2009
and is also on the Public Safety Committee. Both men are
Republicans.

DeLuca sees the police department in terms of the money it consumes.
The police department, which is the largest department in the township
government, makes up 48 percent of the more than $80 million municipal
budget.

"I'm not a police professional," DeLuca said. "I don't know what it
takes to run the department. So, because it is our biggest cost, I
wanted another set of eyes to look at it. I wanted
professionals."

Brando, however, has questioned the way Bergquist runs the department.
For example, he questions the need for a township SWAT team because
Ocean County also has a special tactics squad. He thinks that
civilians could be hired to for certain positions in place of police
officers, too. He cited the sergeant that runs the police EMS division
as an example.

"I want as many cops out on the road as possible," Brando said. "I
believe that the best deterrent is a cop in uniform out on the road."

Getting officers back on the road for patrols is one of Bergquist's
biggest concerns, too. When road patrols are staffed with the minimum
number of officers - about eight to 12, depending on the shift -
officers spend their day moving from one call to the next. In that
situation, a sort of triage is implemented where decisions need to be
made about what calls get answered first.

"If it is not a critical call, you'll be waiting," Bergquist said. "If
we get multiple critical calls, we'll have to make tough decisions."

The preliminary reports from the auditors indicate that the police
department is understaffed for the population of the township and the
type of crime here, DeLuca said.

The auditors have not made any statements about exact staffing levels,
however. That is what still gives Brando pause.

"I haven't been told that we can't do the job with 125 officers,"
Brando said.

The chief said he needs at least 140 officers to run the department
effectively. To that end, the Township Council is asking residents
whether they Advertisement want to hire up to 15 officers. The
question is on Tuesday's ballot, along with another question about
garbage collection.

The referendums are nonbinding, which means the government does not
need to act based on the voter's recommendations. Mayor Stephen C.
Acropolis said questions like this will become more common as
municipal government needs to consider what it will cut each year. And
to be sure, cuts are coming.

Every township employee, including those in the police department, was
recently issued a letter stating that their position could be cut in
2011 because of strict budget caps imposed by the state.

Since his tough stance in May, DeLuca, the Public Safety Committee
chairman, has softened his rhetoric toward the police. He asked voters
to approve hiring more police officers. His opinion has changed based
on preliminary reports from the police auditors.

However, Brando has not changed his stance. He said his question about
redundancy have not been resolved yet.

In many ways, the council has delegated to voters the decision about
how the police department is staffed. The mayor said the decision is a
matter of the type of police department people want, and how much they
are willing to pay to get it.

In the anti-tax climate that is sweeping the nation, and with the
routine defeat of school budgets and referenda in town, "I'm not sure
they will be willing to pay," Acropolis said. What concerns the mayor
and the chief is what might happen if the identified problems go unchecked.

"It is certainly easier to maintain what you have rather than rebuild
something to a certain level," Acropolis said.