Daniel Posluszny always thought he would be a firefighter when he grew up.
By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Daniel Posluszny always thought he would be a firefighter when he grew up.
After all, he started hanging around the firehouse at the Slackwood Fire Co. when he was around 12 or 13 years old, helping the volunteers wash the fire trucks.
As they grew older, many of his friends took the test to become a police officer and he decided to take the test, too. He was 18 years old.
To his surprise, he placed fourth among the applicants who took the test. Two years later, his turn came up and he was hired as a Lawrence Towship police officer. His first day on the job was Aug. 30, 1985.
Now, 28 years, 3 months and 28 days later — but who’s counting? — he is retiring from the Lawrence Township Police Department as its police chief.
Chief Posluszny’s last day as the top cop in Lawrence Township is Dec. 31. The Police Department’s next chief of police has not yet been named.
”I love this job, I still do. I loved being a ‘road officer’ (patrolman). It’s the greatest job in the world. But it’s time to leave. I’m a lot closer to 50 than to 25,” Chief Posluszny said, pointing out that being a police officer is a young person’s job.
When Chief Posluszny, 49, joined the Lawrence Township Police Department, it was a much smaller municipality. The population was around 20,000 people, but quickly expanded during the housing boom of the 1980s, he said.
”You did everything in town yourself (as a police officer). It was ‘one size fits all.’ You handled everything from barking dog complaints to homicide investigations. There was a sense of community. Law enforcement was more personal then,” Chief Poslusuzny said.
He recalled responding to a resident’s home to chase a bat out of the house — which he did, by opening the sliding glass door — and also stopping on the road side to help a stranded motorist change a flat tire.
Times have changed, though, and while a police officer still helps residents, “overall, police work is a lot more collaborative,” he said. “You share information with other departments. That is derived from 9/11. It was a watershed moment for law enforcement.”
Years ago, a police officer who was investigating a burglary might call a neighboring police department to compare notes, Chief Posluszny said. The officer might have information on the suspect, but it was “hit or miss,” he said. Today, there is a database that has improved a police officer’s ability to solve a crime.
”If you were lucky enough to get a fingerprint at a crime scene, you would need to know the suspect to compare his fingerprints (to what was obtained at the scene). Now, you put the fingerprints into a computer and it matches them to known suspects in the database,” Chief Posluszny said.
But even with modern-day forensics, solving a crime still comes down to good, old-fashioned police work — interviewing people and talking to them, he said. Police officers and detectives build rapport with the people they talk to, and the information they gather can help to solve a crime.
That ability to build rapport, fit in and get along with others is key, Chief Posluszny said. It is a skill that he learned while he was involved with the Slackwood Fire Co. The volunteer firefighters came from many different backgrounds and each had a different sense of humor.
”You learned how to fit in (at the fire department). It made it a lot easier when I came here (to the Police Department). There were a lot of police officers that had military experience — from World War II, Korea and Vietnam. It was a militaristic structure. I did what I was told,” he said.
The Lawrence Township Police Department today, however, has fewer military veterans. Its makeup is also more reflective of the general population. The officers include blacks, women and Latinos, as well as white males, he said.
Although Chief Posluszny has led the Police Department since 2002, it is not a position that he initially aspired to reach. He said that as a young police officer, he never thought he would be the chief.
”I was riding on patrol with (Patrolman) Ernie Chester. I talked about taking the sergeant’s test and I told him I was not sure about it. We were riding on Brunswick Pike. He stopped the patrol car and he said, ‘You should never be satisfied with what you are. You should strive to be the chief.’ I thought about it. Maybe I should be chief,” he said.
Chief Posluszny took the sergeant’s test and was promoted to the position in 1991. He rose through the ranks, becoming lieutenant in 1996 and captain in 1999. In January 2002, he was promoted to the newly created post of deputy chief of police. Six months later, then-Municipal Manager William Guhl named him to be the chief of police.
But after 12 years as the chief — the longest he has held any position in the Lawrence Township Police Department — Chief Posluszny is ready to retire. He said he is not certain what he will do when he turns in his pistol and badge, but he has some ideas.
”I’d like to follow Bruce Springsteen to Australia, but I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Chief Posluszny said with a laugh. He added that he has attended more than 30 of the popular musician’s concerts through the years.
What Chief Posluszny is more likely to do for an encore is to teach. He already teaches courses in criminal profiling and police and society at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and courses on homeland security at Rutgers University. He may also do some volunteer work for The Church of St. Ann, where he worships with his family.
Asked whether he would follow the same career path if he were a young man, Chief Posluszny said “absolutely.” Being a police officer is “the greatest job in the world. Being the chief is a great job, too,” he added.
”When you are the police chief, you are the face of the Police Department. When things are bad, you get to hear it. When things are good, you sit back and let the others talk. That’s the way it should be,” Chief Posluszny said.