PRINCETON: Boro police chief plans 2010 retirement

By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
   PRINCETON — Princeton Borough Police Chief Anthony Federico has informed the borough that he plans to retire next summer, after 30 years on the force.
   ”Tony has indicated to the borough that he intends to retire in July of 2010,” said Princeton Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi.
   Chief Federico said, “It’s tentative but my plan, my long range plan is I would be leaving in July 2010, but things could change. My wife and I have spoken about it and we decided it would probably serve us best if I retired in July 2010.”
   Of his reason for leaving the force at that point, Chief Federico said he will have served on it for 30 years and will be at the maximum pension level thereafter.
   His retirement plans could change depending on the economy or on other circumstances, Chief Federico said. He said he might be interested in staying on the force longer to ensure an orderly transition if a policy decision was made by the borough and Princeton Township to merge their police forces. Chief Federico is a proponent of a single police force for Princeton.
   ”If consolidation was a possibility, I might be interested in staying longer just to implement it,” Chief Federico said.
   Borough Councilman Kevin Wilkes, who has actively pushed for merging the borough and township police forces, said the timing of Chief Federico’s retirement presents an opportunity because the municipalities would have only one incumbent police chief as they sought to integrate the two departments.
   The borough Police Department is also down a number of officers and rather than rehire them, and name a new police chief, “wouldn’t it be nice to skip all that now and just unify the two forces,” saving on their salaries immediately rather than waiting for new departures, Mr. Wilkes said.
   Mr. Bruschi said the borough already has begun the process of selecting a replacement for Chief Federico. “I’ve already laid a timeline out for the council where we would lay out an interview process internally,” he said.
   The Borough Council Public Safety Committee will be interviewing candidates for Chief Federico’s job within the borough police force — lieutenants David Dudeck, Nicholas Sutter and Sharon Papp — and a replacement hopefully will be named this summer, Mr. Bruschi said.
   Having Chief Federico’s replacement named for the better part of a year before his actual departure from the force “just helps with the transition,” Mr. Bruschi said. Borough Council could opt to go to a system where the police force is overseen by a public safety director rather than a police chief, but it would still have to select a “first in charge,” he said.
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