The South Brunswick Police Department announced the passing of retired Chief of Police Frank College.
College was responsible for implementing many community policing programs and for spearheading officer safety efforts throughout his distinguished career, according to information provided on May 3.
He served the Township of South Brunswick for 30 years. He was sworn in as a police officer on Oct. 19, 1964. He was promoted to detective sergeant in 1973, to lieutenant in 1975, and to captain in 1980. He was assigned as acting chief in 1987, and officially installed as chief in 1988.
Current Chief Raymond Hayducka said, “Chief College dedicated his life to serving the South Brunswick Police Department and community. He always placed an emphasis on training, officer safety, education and technology. South Brunswick was one of the first police departments in the State of New Jersey to have computers in our vehicles. He lobbied the township to get every officer a bulletproof vest and a back-up weapon. He was always seeking input from the line officers on how we could do things better and make our job easier to serve the public.
“He personally encouraged me and other officers to continue our education and pursue advanced degrees to better ourselves and the profession. He sincerely cared about the policing profession and the people working for him. I am forever grateful that Frank College hired me and encouraged me to develop professionally. He was a great leader and will be missed by the community and the members of the police department. He laid the groundwork for the high standards that this agency has in place today,” Hayducka said in the statement.
Additional highlights of College’s career include:
- Pressing the township for safer police cars with better emergency lights, a public address system, and a prisoner transport cage, all to make a difficult job safer for the officers performing it.
- Using K9 officers to assist police in locating missing persons, track offenders and locate drugs
- Installing the Automated Fingerprint Identification System at police headquarters to link South Brunswick to a nationwide network
- Forming the D.A.R.E. Unit to teach children the dangers of using drugs
- Forming the CORP Unit, an early community policing-based unit tasked with community outreach
- Forming the Crime Prevention Bureau, tasked with decreasing the number of crimes committed within the township
- Forming the Police Explorers post which provided teens interested in law enforcement careers with experience in the field of policing
College held bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Rutgers University, and trained thousands of police officers and public executives as a lead instructor for Farleigh Dickinson University’s Certified Public Manager Course, according to the statement. He also developed the Front Line Supervision course for the New Jersey State Chiefs of Police, and trained many new police supervisors in the art of leadership.
Funeral arrangements will be announced later this week.