Police Coverage Will Remain the Same or Improve With Consolidation, Chief Says

With consolidation, Princeton residents can expect the same or greater level of police protection, said Borough Police Chief David Dudeck, who will lead the new Princeton Police Department effective Jan. 1, 2013.

“In my heart, I always felt that consolidation could be a win-win for both the taxpayers and for the police department,” Dudeck said. “And I say that because I really feel that we can provide more service, more efficiently. My hope is that we can provide more service for less money.”

At the same time, Princeton University's Department of Public Safety will be responsible for some of the routine calls that Borough Police have historically responded to on campus. For example, police do not need to respond to every ambulance call to the University, Dudeck said. 

University officials have asked for greater authority on campus, and with the help of consultant The Rodgers Group and the Mercer County Prosecutors’' Office, police are now in the process of outlining a more formal agreement. 

“All parties involved have agreed, that’s something that they don’t need us for, the University can handle themselves,” Dudeck said. “We don’t need to respond to those unless there’s something more to it.

Services that Princeton residents expect, like helping retrieve keys locked inside their cars, will continue.

“I think by and large Princeton is a town that demands community policing,” Dudeck said. “We pride ourselves on being able to handle any call or any request at any time, whether it’s a robbery, a sexual assault, a bear in a tree or whatever the request is from the public.”

Dudeck’s new administrative staff includes Cpt. Nick Sutter, Lt. Robert Currier, Lt. Sharon Papp, Lt. Christopher Morgan and Lt. Robert Toole. Morgan and Toole are currently members of the Princeton Township Police Department, while the others are currently members of the Borough Police Department. 

Together, the team has already divided the new Princeton into four patrol sectors and an overlap sector that will encompass areas of town with the largest call volume.

That means that even at the outer edges of the former township, where the call volume may not be as high as downtown, there will still be police coverage. 

"Where the Township would have one car in a huge area, now we’ll use two cars in that same area,” Dudeck said. “Some of the things that we look at are where do all of our calls for service come from. There are innovative police things you can do to have overlap of cars and overlap of sectors for those higher areas that create a higher call volume and not take cars or take coverage from other areas.”

See more from Patch's interview with Chief Dudeck in articles published later this week.