##VIDEO ID:kXVPJkbofYU## [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] hello this is Mayor Derek Armstead and welcome to another edition of conversation with the mayor today we have uh our chief of police chief David Hart and chief David Hart will be giving us an overview of what his job entails and uh what the lynon police department's responsibilities are uh to our city and what they can do to try to help make Lyndon a better place to live for all of us so Chief tell me um how long have you worked for the city of Lyon and tell us a little little bit a little bit about your background around uh well I grew up in Lyndon uh I've been a police officer now I'm in my 40th year as a police officer uh I started as a officer at the Union County police department in 1985 and 1987 I I took the test for Lyndon police and I trans transitioned over from the county police to Lyndon so I've been here now for about 30 37 38 years working for the city of Lyndon you have a background in EMS as well don't you uh yes sir I was also I started off I had a love for Public Safety I actually always wanted to be a fireman and uh I I out of high school I joined the old Lynden volunteer ambulance Corps elac and uh as a as a Cadet and then when I became 18 I went to EMT school yeah so I had almost a 40-year uh career volunteering and paid part-time career as an EMT and then also as a paramedic for over 30 years at raway hospital so Chief if if it's possible I know you have a lot of responsibility could you Bas basically give us an overview of what your profession entails uh being a chief of police today in any any department is is an involved job uh in the Lyon Police Department I oversee the whole operation of uh obviously the police department this also includes uh dispatch and our crossing guards uh we have five divisions within the police department we have an investigative Division and we have Professional Standards which is training and Internal Affairs uh we have the administration which is out of my office uh we also have uh Patrol and uniform Services uh so we have we have five five uh five divisions which I oversee and and they are commanded by captains uh so the day-to-day function is very involved it's not just police cars and detectives like you would see uh many years ago officers on patrol that's a big part of our department and a a handful of detectives doing follow-up cases we also have specialization with records uh body warn cameras Oprah and then we Branch out to a community police and community relations uh we get involved than a lot of other things so we have a lot of moving Parts here at the PD including dispatch which we oversee here at the police department so uh today our police profession today a Police Executive whether it's a commander or a chief of police does have a lot on his plate and oversees a a lot of op a lot of operation within their Department uh we have the best trained Department that we've ever had I'm happy to say most diverse Department we've ever had uh with recruitment we we recruit in our schools and our churches and the colleges and we we have career fairs so we're always looking to improve improve our department uh with diversity within the department with technology and of course improving the way we uh police here in the city of London so Chief I've been around for 30 years and I think it's safe to say uh that policing uh as we used to know it is no longer no longer exist uh policing is a whole different world now whole I mean it is really evolved into a whole different uh field as as I see it so so again Chief as I mentioned earlier policing has changed a lot uh and I what I've noticed uh even more so is that uh the police department is more active with dealing with residents as they've more proactive now than they've ever been before uh how would a constituent or a um a resident uh get in touch with you personally if they had to certainly they can call my office uh I have secretarial staff that'll will assist the number is 908 47485 13 or email me at ehart LPD nj.org I will guarantee if you have an issue or problem if you call me or email me if I can't help you directly you will get a response from my office or one of the the commanders uh from within the police department I can attest to that I I I know that um you're very proactive uh and you're very responsive uh just last night we were at a community meeting and uh a lot of questions were presented to you and I think you had some very good answers for our residents so uh so I thank you for that for for being a proactive uh Chief and a hand hand on Chief is what I'll say you know you're not one of those guys who sits up in the office all day you know you one of the guys who out there uh you should run for counsel just Kidd now community policing and community outreach is key for any police department whether it's Urban Suburban or rural Department uh there is crime fighting there is law enforcement that we obviously do on a daily basis but engaging the community our churches our schools and our businesses is key for the success of any Police Department so Chief you've been around for a long time you know and like any profession when you're there for a long time time there are a lot of things that happen uh now I know in the police department it's every day is a new day just like the mayor's office every day is a new day U Can you B basically talk about maybe maybe some of the more interesting things that have occurred uh in your tenure as a chief well after 40 years in policing and almost 40 years in EMS there's been a lot of things that have gone on uh good and bad as a police officer and as a police administrator uh some of the most dramatic things and maybe not good things would of the the terror attacks of 9911 were were tremendous uh impact on the city of Lyndon of course police officers here in the town uh the the Rami terrorist arrest several years ago here on Elizabeth Avenue uh there's been a lot of tragedies and a lot of good things over the course of the career I can't really pick one in general but the the career has been very rewarding it's a noble profession regardless of what department and what rank you uh you're you have and what department you work for there's no job where you can or profession you can touch the lives of so many people as out of a police officer I've been very blessed and I've been very blessed by our good Lord that this has been a tremendous career for myself and hopefully I've helped as many people as I could over the course of 40 years I've often said you probably heard me say at least a half dozen times that police officers have a tremendous amount of power and I think the one of the biggest uh abilities one of the most important things they could do is is having the power to influence people uh you know by just communicating uh being respectful um and uh letting people know that the police are really their friends versus um you know their enemies and we know that there's times out there when you got to go out and get the bad guys um but um there's certain situations where sometimes just a little bit of uh common sense and a little bit of uh respect uh can basically uh shed a lot of insight on just how decent some of our police officers can be yeah police officers are are people like we all are we all have family problems we all have you know all human uh and police officers on a day in and day out basis particularly our officers here in lynon go out and do the best job they can uh 100 they give 100% are men and women of this department they are tremendous people uh communication is the key today public relations is the key community policing is the key I we have a component of crime fighting and enforcing law but good communication and good relations with our community is is key to a successful police department and uh We've have the best trained and best educated officers more than we've ever had we do more training than we've ever done and this is key to a good cohesion uh like within the within the community I always say the police need the community and the community needs the police and most people support police 100% I I agree and I and I think one of your biggest tools are the community the people in your community is a great resource for our Police Department chief and in policing as we've discussed earlier there are a lot of different areas uh of concerns a lot of areas that you are involved with u but if you could pick one thing or even a couple things that you would do to change uh policing in in London or the state what do you think that might be well there's several things as we said policing has evolved tremendously up and down good and bad over the course of my career I think lately uh I think we need to re-evaluate although it was it was evaluated about five six years ago our bail reform laws and our criminal justice system within the state of New Jersey I think we need to look at that again and re-evaluate reevaluate our Criminal Justice System there has been some improvements we have to be fair to our citizens of course citizens should always be treated fairly our system and of course the police department also a juvenile justice I think needs to be reevaluate and one of our biggest uh social issues which affects policing is our Mental Health crisis not only in in our country but in the state of New Jersey uh we need more Mental Health Services uh for our citizens it's the worst I would say one of worst Mental Health crisis we've ever seen and police deal with this on a daily basis with our EMS of course in the city I would like to mention our arrive program which Lyndon and Elizabeth PDS were the first cities in the state of New Jersey to participate in this pilot program was called arrive where we put a police officer with a mental health counselor that responds to Mental Health crisis calls within the city it's been a tremendous success in New Jersey and here in Union County and I'm happy to say myself and chief Sak and Elizabeth instituted this after the state police first towns in the state to have this program we now have all 21 towns in Union County the first in New Jersey to participate where they participate at least one day a week an officer with with an mental health counselor and this is a countywide and a Statewide program now and Lyndon and Elizabeth were the first towns in the state get a lot of good feedback with regards to the aride program uh even last night at the uh community meeting that we had several people came up and commented about that arve program and said they didn't even know it existed but they said wow when they heard about it last night they said what a good thing uh and I think it's uh it's good for Lyndon it's good for the state and I do believe uh that it will eventually uh save lives and uh it just makes us a better better Force now one thing else you you you you talked about was bail reform uh you know as a mayor you know I see a lot of reports that come in on a daily basis and uh I happen to agree with the fact that we have to have bail reform because it's not fair that a person can rob you and the morning and be out in the afternoon uh if somebody is a habitual offender uh then they should not have uh be be allowed out to out of jail to be able to continue to commit more crimes so uh so I think bail reform is something that has to be addressed um and we have to address it in a way a holistic way that you know that we don't want to lock a person up who uh you know doesn't have uh automobile insurance for for for for for for 60 days versus a person who's climbing through somebody's back window uh trying to rob them or somebody who mugs a person or harms a person uh Bill reform um we don't we don't want we don't want to let uh hardened criminals out on the streets that are going to uh adversely affect our communi so I agree 100% with you on that and that that's has to be done through legislature and it was changed and we have to find a find me a middle ground I believe on this we have to be fair we should always be fair and but there has to be uh a middle ground on this and I know it's being reevaluated the state level but it's going to take some time to reevaluate it will be it will be it will take time Chief tell us more about some of the various programs that we have in town uh that really are designed to assist Our Youth and just uh help people in general as I mentioned before mayor we have a robust community relations community outreach uh if someone calls me a school or church or they want a police officer to come to an event City Event we we don't say no whether it's setting up a table and giving out you know handouts and and some giveaways from the police department whether it's doing a talk at a school or whether it's just a police car stopping by at a at a basketball tournament so that that's the most the key the starting point is community outreach which we I think we do very well here at the PD it's not because of myself it's because of all the great men and women that that answer the call and go out to all these events a couple uh programs that we have here I just want to mention a lot of it's forgotten over over the course of of a year people don't realize things that we have we started this lead program again law enforcement against drugs and it's for fifth grade students within the school system we initiated that last year and we're going to continue that eventually hopefully at all of our grammar schools we've uh successfully completed a few already last year and into this school year we also have I mentioned the arve program which is very successful uh we have a few other programs here that people may not be aware of the internet exchange a program where we a safe place if someone buy something on the Internet they can come to the front of City Hall to make a purchase and and right in front of our Police Department window and in front lobby area where you can actually inter uh exchange it make a transaction with something you bought online uh we also have I want to mention our CIT officers we're talking about mental health before our CIT is Crisis Intervention training we have the most officers trained in crisis intervention in Union County I'm very pleased to uh report that and also Mental Health First Aid uh we have 150 man department and most of our officers Almost 100% officers were trained it's a one-day 8 hour class in Mental Health First Aid so CIT is a 40-hour program mental health for state is an 8 Hour program and with this mental health I call it a crisis that we have in our state the more training we have in this area too is tremendous I would also um ask our citizens to sign up for our nixel which is sometimes people don't realize our nixel is our Citywide alert system uh Captain Gunther runs that to our to my office our public information officer nixel alerts give when roads are closed and when there's a police activity in the area uh nixel alerts are sent out by the police department another great progr program and also our special needs registry by our state of New Jersey uh anyone who has special needs they can register through New Jersey office of emergency management it's a confidential website and if there's a city-wide emergency we would know in in different neighborhoods who may have special needs in that neighborhood bedridden people and things like that and our last is our new program the blue envelope program which is for people with special needs who are driving a car you fill out a blue envelope and you actually carry it with you in your car uh and if there if you're stopped by a police officer uh might be a a a visual problem or or an auditory problem or other special needs autistic Spectrum possibly problem uh that officer would know that someone that you are stopping may have special needs in the vehicle it's a great program the county rolled it out this year and we're participating with that also great program yeah um you mentioned nixel uh so nixel is is a program that uh gives you community alerts uh how would a person uh sign up for nixel could you tell us more about that uh you can it's actually nixel I believe it's nixle.com or you can call my office uh talk to Captain Gunther Captain Christopher Gunther is the our Pio and he is the head of the nixel program and can point you in the right direction very good program I want the public to know uh it it gives you warnings of a inclement weather tornadoes whatever uh if roads are shut down nixel is a a very um useful tool uh and it informs the residents of what's going on and I think every resident in Lyon should sign up for nixel and we got to make sure we we pushed that a little bit more out of my office as well as we wind down Chief um two more questions what made you get into this profession and what would you recommend to young people who are considering a career in law enforcement I think as I mentioned earlier I when I was a kid I always wanted to be a fireman uh when I was like eight or 10 years old I had a love for Public Safety love for the fire service and as I I became a teenager and then uh you know eventually graduating School school high school and going on to college I started taking public uh public civil service tests for for Public Safety jobs and by chance I took a police test did well on it and then I became a Union County police officer in the same time as we mentioned earlier uh I had I had a love for EMS and I I started at the Lyon volunteer ambulance Corps so I became a police officer and and and a paramedic actually the same year when I was 21 years of age and in the rest this history I grew on to continue to get promoted and take tests and Advance my career as a police officer and my involvement as a EMT and then as a paramedic later at raway hospital and then I also uh in later on in my career became the Emergency Management coordinator here for the city I was a deputy coordinator now I am also a coordinator of emergency preparedness Emergency Management for the city of Lyndon my recommendation for anybody having a love for possible career in law enforcement was course do do your homework do your research find out whether is police job there's a lot of police profession is are trend tremendous career there are a lot of police jobs within the state of New Jersey not just local police there's State Police there's uh rail police College Police and a lot of other police agencies Statewide I'd recommend uh any possible candidate to continue to get your education education is key continue to do your research take tests but always continue to train always continue to get an education uh you'll never be uh never be at a loss for for having higher education in in any field but it's a great job I'd recomend man we need good police officers in this field continuing down the road and I said policing is the most noble professions we need educated people who really love this job love people and want to make a difference I'll agree it's a noble profession it really is okay once again everybody this is a conversation with the mayor and we've had Chief Hart with us today uh Chief want to thank you for your time and uh and your uh your dedication to this profession thank you well I certainly hope all of you out there enjoyed this program I am Bradley crano the television station manager here for the city of Lyon so until next time take care [Music] [Music]