By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert, Police Chief David J. Dudeck and others plan to do a mid-year analysis to look at what the staffing level of the Police Department ought to be.
Ms. Lempert had been firm that the department, over time, needs to get down to 51 officers to achieve the promised $2.1 million annually recurring savings through consolidation. Appearing with Chief Dudeck Friday to announce a police initiative, she was asked if she and the chief have agreed upon staffing levels.
”We don’t have an agreement on a number, but we have an agreement on a process,” she said. “The agreement is to look mid-year at where we are.”
That process will start within the town’s Public Safety Committee, which she, Chief Dudeck, two council members and Administrator Robert W. Bruschi sit on. Earlier this year, Dudeck said the department is down to 50 officers due to four officers out on medical or maternity leaves.
The 51-officer figure was a recommendation of the Consolidation Study Commission, the group that in 2011 recommended the two communities to merge. Anton Lahnston, the chairman of the commission, said Friday that he supported the figure, and noted the town was already ahead of schedule in reaching it.
Councilwoman Heather H. Howard, who sits on the Public Safety Committee, said Friday that the Transition Task Force had recommend a mid-year review “to see how all this is now working in the new world and have a really data-driven analysis and decide based on what the experience is this year.”
The combined police force, representing the blended former borough and township departments, is going through an adjustment as it wades through what Chief Dudeck called “uncharted territory.”
”Every day we’re learning something different, every day we’re seeing how many calls we answer, what services we can provide,” he said. “It’s evolving.”
”So I think in all fairness to everyone both the citizens, the politicians and the police department I think we have to sit back, take a deep breath and give everything some time, let some things settle in,” he said. “And through that we will work out a number.”
At the event, officials announced the department had formed a three-member community policing unit that will seek to prevent crime by building relationships with the public.
”In a lot ways, this is the one of the most important thing our police department can do, which is getting out into the neighborhoods, knowing what’s going on, preventing problems before they rise up to a level that becomes a real problem,” Mayor Lempert said.
Though police are trained in and do community policing, this gives the force a dedicated group, known as the Safe Neighborhood Unit, for that purpose. Police promised the public can expect an “immediate” response to quality of life issues.
The two former departments used to have versions of such units, though they were eliminated due to cuts in staff and strains on municipal budgets, Mayor Lempert said.
”Consolidation has given us this opportunity to strengthen these services,” Ms. Howard said.
The three members of the unit were on hand for Friday’s announcement. To be visible, officers will be out on bikes during the warmer months. They also will seek to interact with the schools.
”Anyway that we can help form that relationship with the schools, we want to do that,” Chief Dudeck said.
As part of the initial outreach, the department in the coming days will go door-to-door distributing surveys throughout the community, to homes and businesses in five different geographic sectors of Princeton, to gauge what they expect of the consolidated department. During March and April, police plan to be out from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. during the week.
The department plans to sample about 50 to 75 homes in each sector, said police Sgt. John Bucchere of the Safe Neighborhood Unit. The five-question survey, which will have a Spanish language version, also will be available on the department’s website, www.princtonnj.gov/police, and on surveymonkey.com.
”The only way for us to understand these concerns is to hear them,” Sgt. Bucchere said.
Surveys were not intended for distribution on the Princeton University campus, which has its own police force, although police said surveys likely will go to staff and off-campus housing.
Once the results of the survey come in, the feedback will help the department tailor its response and operations to the community, police Capt. Nicholas K. Sutter said.
At some point, the department will do another survey in a year or less to see how well they’re doing, he said.

