Much has changed in Jackson during the past 50 years as the township’s population grew from 6,500 residents to about 56,000 residents today. The Jackson Police Department has also grown to keep pace with all of the changes. Retired Maj. Borden Applegate has kept scrapbooks that tell the story of the Police Department and the municipality. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the creation of the official Jackson Police Department insignia. Fifty years ago, Jackson was a different place compared to what it is today. Ask anyone who lived or worked in the community in 1965, and they are likely to mention how Jackson was a rural municipality with farms and cranberry bogs dotting the landscape. The population was about 6,500.
Today, the community is home to about 56,000 residents, and residential and commercial development has touched most of the 100-square-mile township.
For one lifelong Jackson resident who served in his hometown Police Department for nearly four decades, 2015 marks a special event that took place nearly a half-century ago — the creation and adoption of the Jackson Police Department’s official insignia and shoulder patch.
“The patch gives you a sort of pride,” retired Jackson Police Maj. Borden Applegate said. “You know, 25, 30, 40 years ago, we were wearing that patch, and the guys are still wearing it today.”
Applegate, who amassed a collection of newspaper clippings, police patches and other items during his tenure as an officer, is a sort of unofficial historian for the department, having served on the force from 1962 to 2000.
Applegate, who joined the police force at the age of 21, said the insignia that continues to identify Jackson officers today was created at a time when a handful of men protected the lives and property of the community’s residents. “When I started out, I had to drive over to Whitesville to get the chief’s car because we really didn’t have a headquarters,” he said. “In an eight-hour tour, you were by yourself and you had to handle the whole township.” Applegate said in the earliest days of the Police Department, the patch that was worn by Chief Jerry Showell of Jackson’s Whitesville section was small, dark and barely distinguishable from the dark-blue uniforms worn by the handful of officers.
The patch remained largely unchanged until Showell was killed in a 1962 boating accident in the Barnegat Bay Inlet.
When Walter McCurdy was appointed to succeed Showell as chief, the patch again was a small design.
In 1965, according to Applegate, the Police Department’s directors adopted an insignia that featured a shield with slightly rounded sides and dark-blue lettering against a bright-yellow background. That shield continues to identify Jackson police officers 50 years later.
“[Department heads figured], ‘Why don’t we have something bright and have a contrasting color with big letters that is easily identifiable?’ ” Applegate said.
By 1965, the Police Department had 13 officers, Applegate was a sergeant, and the force had a recognizable insignia to go along with the growing roster.
Today, the Jackson Police Department has about 80 officers and dozens of support personnel under the direction of Police Chief Matthew Kunz.
Applegate noted how much the department has changed over the years. He recalled when Jackson did not have a police facility and the officer who was on duty had to drive anyone he arrested to the county jail in Toms River just to be processed. That trip out of town meant there might not be a police presence in Jackson until the officer returned from the county seat.
“We didn’t have anything but a radio — that was it,” Applegate said.
Eventually, the Police Department did get its own facility; today, it has its headquarters in the Jackson Justice Complex on West Veterans Highway.
Applegate’s collection includes newspaper clippings that recount some of the memorable moments in the Police Department’s history, including the discovery of a burial ground linked to organized crime.
“You had suicides and homicides once in a while, but most of the time it was just routine calls — domestic incidents, traffic accidents,” Applegate said.
The retired officer said he remains extremely proud of the Police Department and the years he served the community.
“The Police Department in Jackson Township was very good to me, and I worked with a great bunch of guys and women in that department,” Applegate said. “Of course, I’m very prejudiced, but I always felt we had a very good Police Department — and I think we still do.”