Police chief looks back at a decade of change

By:Amanda Bok
   When Chief Harry Kleinkauf came to Cranbury in 1970, the town consisted mainly of farmland and pastures.
   Cranbury was small then and so was the police department.
   "We had five officers," the chief said.
   But Cranbury was bigger than Hightstown, where Chief Kleinkauf began his career as a police officer in 1966.
   "(Cranbury) was a much larger area, a larger town, and would have offered more career opportunities," he said.
   He was right.
   Chief Kleinkauf began working in Cranbury as an officer on April 1, 1970. In 1976, he became the first lieutenant the Cranbury Police Department ever had. In 1988 he was the first to make captain. And in 1991 he became chief of police. He recently celebrated his 10th anniversary as chief.
   A lot has happened in Cranbury in the past 30 years, he said, leaning back in his chair Monday while he reminisced.
   His office is small. An array of paperwork almost completely covers the top of his desk. Family pictures and framed police badges adorn the walls. Some of the badges belong to his son, who was a NJ Transit officer before joining the East Windsor Police Department. Some say "Polizei," which is German for police and were given to him by a visiting law officer from Germany.
   Cranbury was a farming community with a small population when he got here, he said. Now Cranbury has about 3,200 residents. But despite the smaller population, the town wasn’t always peaceful in the 1970s.
   "We were pretty busy. Cranbury was a big farming community back then," he said. That brought migrant workers, runaway animals and traffic problems, he said.
   According to the chief, there were eight active migrant labor camps. Each camp averaged between 12 to 40 workers who traveled from Florida with the seasons to help pick potatoes, apples, cabbage and other crops.
   "Every weekend it was a zoo out there," he said. "The camp bosses would bring in a lot of wine and women from Trenton. Needless to say, a lot of fights broke out."
   The chief also said that four miles of Route 130, which had no lights until 1985, kept police busy.
   "You can just imagine the number of accidents with cars having to cross four lanes from east to west without lights," he said.
   And every so often, he encountered a motor vehicle accident involving a runaway animal.
   "I remember when I started working by myself, I was called to a motor vehicle accident. It turned out to be a cow and a car," he said, chuckling out loud. "The cow had escaped from a pasture on Plainsboro Road."
   Back then Cranbury had cattle farms and horses. Riding was popular, he said.
   "It was not unusual to see a horse coming down Main Street. After a while we had gotten to know the horses by their appearance.
   "I was probably pretty shocked when I came upon that accident," he said, referring to the cow-car collision. "I went from a residential community to a farming community. It was a real cultural shock."
   The driver in that accident wasn’t hurt. The cow went home with a bloody eye, he said.
   Scratchy voices on the first aid walkie-talkie interrupted his train of thought. He turned around in his chair to lower the volume. He paused to remember the topic of conversation and then talked about today’s police work.
   Nowadays migrant workers no longer come to Cranbury, but Route 130 continues to be one of the department’s biggest problems. "Most of our work involves motor vehicle accidents," he said.
   As the chief sees it, Cranbury has outgrown its road system. Not only has the town’s population increased, but its industrial sector also attracts increased traffic.
   "The area is growing so fast that our roadways can’t deal with it and neither can public transportation," he said. "The problem we’re running into now is that our highways were not built to handle the transportation we’re experiencing."
   Bad and congested roads combine to cause "road rage" in drivers, a situation that breeds trouble, according to the chief.
   Cranbury’s growth has caused other problems too, according to the chief.
   "Some of our domestic violence has gone up," he said. The chief also said that the addition of warehouses in the town has brought unions and labor strikes, picket lines and some tension. It also has increased the township’s cases of theft, fraud, fights among construction workers and more fire and burglar alarms.
   "That all adds to the volume of work," the chief said.
   But overall he said he supports the town’s growth, which he said has been largely positive.
   "Cranbury has been able to draw great people. I find that just about everyone in Cranbury is, in a sense, somebody that’s easy to deal with. The department has a lot of support."
   The chief also said that adding an industrial sector has helped the township’s tax base, although it has increased the workload of the police, fire and first aid departments.
   "My responsibilities in particular have increased tremendously," he said.
   The chief said he now oversees 13 officers and manages a more complicated operation than ever before.
   "We’re running a business here, in essence," he said.
   That’s because laws change and constant re-education and training, like re-certification for using firearms, radar machines or breathalyzers, is required. Cranbury patrol officers also take classes to learn "street Spanish," the chief said.
   He also said the department needs a detective to handle investigative work. But since Cranbury has no such position, the chief is training one of his officers to acquire the same skills until such a position opens officially.
   "It’s a volume of work and it’s on the increase all the time," he said.
   Despite that, he loves his job.
   "It has been great," he said confidently. "I’ve enjoyed working here. We have a great bunch of residents who tend to work with us."
   Among his most interesting work stories, Chief Kleinkauf includes three baby deliveries.
   The first and most impressive happened in 1966, when he was a rookie working in Hightstown.
   "We got a maternity call. The woman couldn’t get her husband at work. But when I got to the scene, I realized the baby was going to be born there," he said.
   The chief said he ran to his car to get his maternity kit, which is included in the first-aid kit. Police are trained for such an event, but facing the real thing was very different, he said.
   "Boy, I tell you what an eye opener that was," he said. "It’s quite an experience when you hold a new life, in a sense. When you hear that first cry, it gives you a different outlook on life."
   The chief, who plans to retire in three and a half years, said he will miss the Cranbury department, its work and its people.
   "I hate to leave, but yes, I am slowly reaching the point where it’s time to go."