By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
With a minimum of pomp and circumstance, and with his family at his side, Chief of Police Mark Ubry was ceremonially sworn in as the seventh chief of police of the Lawrence Township Police Department in its 90-year history Tuesday night.
Chief Ubry, who succeeded Chief of Police Daniel Posluszny, was officially appointed to the Police Department’s top job last month. He had served as acting chief of police since Jan. 1, after Chief Posluszny’s retirement.
Bagpipe player Anthony Magistro, who is a West Windsor Township police officer, set the stage for the ceremony. The Lawrence Township Police Department’s color guard marched into the Municipal Courtroom, followed by Chief Ubry, police Lts. Joseph Amodio and Brian Caloiaro, the sergeants and the patrolmen.
They marched along the perimeter of the courtroom and then down the center aisle, past the bar and into the area reserved for the Municipal Court judge and the attorneys. They joined police Lt. Charles B. Edgar, who was waiting for them.
Chief Ubry stood in the middle, flanked by the Police Department’s color guard on his right and Lts. Edgar, Amodio and Caloiaro to his left. Chief Ubry’s daughters, Mackenzie and Madison, led the Pledge of Allegiance. Patrolman Thomas Everist offered the invocation and Detective Todd Caruso sang the National Anthem.
Standing along the wall were 10 newly appointed police officers, who are replacing retirees in the Police Department. The eight men and two women, all wearing civilian clothing, will begin their studies at a police academy later this month.
Jack Oakley, the township’s director of emergency management, introduced many of the dignitaries in attendance — from Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph Bocchini and First Assistant Prosecutor Angelo Onofri, to former police chiefs Daniel Posluszny and Nicholas Loveless, and Val Seabridge, wife of the late Chief William Seabridge.
The presence of Chief Nicholas Sutter of the Princeton Police Department, Chief Lance Maloney of the Hopewell Township Police Department, Chief Martin Masseroni of the Robbinsville Police Department, and Lt. John Stemler III, the officer in charge of the Ewing Township Police Department, also was acknowledged.
In offering some background information on Chief Ubry, Mr. Oakley said, "we had to rework it." As Chief Ubry smiled slightly, he said the introduction was revised to offer more than just that Chief Ubry was born in Lawrence, went to school in Lawrence, became a police officer in Lawrence and was now the chief of police in Lawrence.
Chief Ubry, in fact, did grow up in Lawrence Township on Cold Soil Road with his parents and younger sister, Jill. He helped his family as they farmed on a portion of the former AT&T property across from their home, from 1976 until Mercer County purchased it for park land, Mr. Oakley said.
Chief Ubry graduated from Lawrence High School in 1982, and attended Mercer County Community College and Rider University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history, Mr. Oakley said. He also received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Thomas Edison State College.
He was hired as a Police Department dispatcher in 1988, and became a police officer a few months later. He worked in the Patrol Division, and then later he was assigned to the Detective Bureau. He was promoted to sergeant in 1999 and to lieutenant in 2001, Mr. Oakley said.
Then, it was Mayor Cathleen Lewis’s turn. She thanked Chief Ubry’s family "for sharing him with us." She noted that the fact that so many dignitaries from other towns were in attendance "says a lot" about the new police chief.
As Chief Ubry’s family held a Bible, Mayor Lewis administered the oath of office to Chief Ubry. At his side were his mother, Lynn Ubry, and his wife, Mariann, his son, Matthew, and his daughters, Mackenzie and Madison.
In his remarks, Chief Ubry thanked Township Council and Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun for placing their trust in him for the past eight months to serve as acting chief of police, and now to allow him to lead the Police Department as its chief.
Chief Ubry also thanked his family, who supported his law enforcement career. He also pointed to his mother, Lynn Ubry, "who just held the Bible for me, and my father, Ted, who I am sure had his hand in there on the Bible as well."
"Lawrence Township is the place my family decided to call home. I don’t mean my immediate family. My mother’s side of the family — the Hendrickson side — made Lawrence Township their home in the 1800s and we haven’t left yet," he said.
Chief Ubry said his career had led him in many directions — patrolman, detective, sergeant and lieutenant. He said he was satisfied with each position as he held it, and never wanted to advance to the next step — "but I did and I have."
"I was shocked when Chief Posluszny announced he was retiring in November 2013. I was even more shocked when a couple of weeks later, Mr. Krawczun informed me I was going to be the acting chief of police. It was never in my radar — or anyone else’s, for that matter — that I would be placed in such a position," he said.
Chief Ubry said he knew that 2014 was going to be a "tough year" for the Police Department, whose manpower was at a 30-year low. But he reminded himself of what he had learned in high school, college and then at the FBI National Academy, where the students examined the leadership styles of the men involved during the crossing of the Delaware River and the subsequent Battle of Trenton — a turning point in American history.
Gen. George Washington and his troops had been chased across New Jersey and had stopped on the banks of the Delaware River in Pennsylvania. The Army was depleted because of injuries and illness, and soldiers were not re-enlisting. Nevertheless, he planned to cross the river and attack Trenton on Christmas night with his remaining troops.
Gen. Horatio Gates, however, urged Gen. Washington to surrender because he would not able to win a battle with the few soldiers he had left. But Gen. Washington replied that he was not worried about the soldiers he did not have — he said he cared about the soldiers that were still there, Chief Ubry said.
"Gen. Washington said that ‘(those soldiers) expect me to do something, so I will.’ He then promptly had Gen. Gates escorted out of camp and, well, you know the rest of the story. Cops today are having coffee and doughnuts, instead of tea and crumpets," Chief Ubry said.
The point, Chief Ubry said, is that he is not concerned about what the Lawrence Township Police Department no longer has in terms of the number of police officers, but "instead (to) focus on the police officers we still have."
Those police officers have risen to every challenge in the past eight months, Chief Ubry said. The Police Department has renewed alliances with the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and the Trenton Police Department. Lawrence police officers are participating in many task forces, gaining experience and making valuable contacts that they may call upon later, he said.
The Police Department and its officers also met another challenge head on, Chief Ubry said. They took part in the hiring process to fill vacancies created by the retirement of 10 police officers when the state Civil Service test results were released in May.
"I am proud to say that next week, there will be 10 new officers joining our ranks," he said, as the new recruits marched to the front of the courtroom. "Ladies and gentlemen, take a good look at these officers because you will be seeing a lot of them for the next 30 years."
Given the downturn in the economy, "the slogan around here has been to do more with less. Well, we’ve been there and done that. Next week, we start doing even more with more," Chief Ubry said, thanking the audience for attending the ceremony.
And with that, the bagpiper and the color guard led the way out of the courtroom, followed by Chief Ubry, Lts. Edgar, Amodio and Caloiaro and the sergeants and patrolmen — all of whom lined up along the walls in the hallway for a reception line.
