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The Richard ������ State College Police Department was organized in 1971 under the direction of James A. Williams.  At this time, the department consisted of eleven (11) police officers; three (3) Sergeants and eight (8) Patrolman.  At the time, the official designation for sworn personnel was the terms “Campus Patrolman,”  “Sergeant, Campus Patrol” and Lieutenant, Campus Patrol.”  It was not until the mid 1980’s when the statute was revised that the word Police was utilized.

This was also the time when the College was transitioning from the Mayflower Hotel in Atlantic City to the current campus in Galloway Township.  At that time the new campus consisted of A through D Wings and the first few housing complexes which are currently housing 1, Arrowwood through Heather Courts.  The library was in D-Wing, the cafeteria and pub were located in lower C-Wing.   Getting to the new campus was only by way of Jim Leeds Road as “College Drive” did not go through, but stopped at the Circle where the current Arts & Sciences Building now sits.  The majority of campus offices were located in the various buildings and houses that were left behind by the residents when the state purchased the land for the college.  The Admissions Office was located at Pomona Road and Duerer Street; the Business Offices were located at Jim Leeds Road and College Drive.  Our first police facility was just across College Drive and Jim Leeds Road, and we shared the building with the Purchasing Department. 

������ Police Department Personnel, 1982

What the police department faced in those early years was acceptance and recognition by not only the college community, but the local community, and more important, the other law enforcement agencies in the county and state.  Clearly police on campus was new to our state.  The majority of New Jersey colleges had security departments and relied on the local police for law enforcement needs.   So ������ was radical in establishing a police agency from the inception, and not transitioning from a security component.   But as we know now, ������ was a “non-traditional” college from the beginning.  Yet, Dr. Richard Bjork, the first President of ������, supported the formation of a police department over the traditional security element.  He anticipated that the college was destined for rapid growth and felt that the local police did not have the resources needed to serve both their citizens and a college community as well.

As noted, the first commissioned and sworn officers faced many challenges.  The major one was the statute that authorized and empowered Campus Police agencies.  The officers had full police authority and powers when “on duty” only.  Once off duty, they were not considered police officers.  Therefore they were vastly different than their peers.   Other issues were the constant concerns of balancing a police presence with college students, and the main issue here was the uniform.  Chief Williams wanted the uniform to conform to accepted police standards, but many college officials did not.  They wanted a different approach, what they termed as a “softer” approach.  So what emerged was a uniform that consisted of a Stetson uniform hat, which was worn by the Galloway Police; a light blue uniform shirt; navy blue trousers with no stripe on the legs; a gray blazer with the department’s patch on the pocket.  The officer’s badge, name plate, and duty equipment and weapon was concealed by the blazer.  The issued duty weapon was a .38 caliber revolver, like our peers, but was reduced to a 3 inch barrel and capable of only five (5) rounds of ammunition so it too could be concealed by the blazer.  In addition, police vehicles were not “marked” as we see today.

Another major issue was radio communications.  The police department shared a single system with the college’s maintenance and facilities department.  This did not allow for interoperability with any of the local police agencies.  Therefore, with the lack of traditional police authority, the lack of traditional police uniforms, the lack of traditional police vehicles and no secure radio communications system, the average person really didn’t know who the officers were or what they did.  The most common question we all received and dreaded to hear was, “Are you guys real cops?”   However, despite these challenges, the officers let their actions and professionalism on duty answer this question.The original officers that made up this first group came from other police agencies, from the military, or fresh out of school.  They came for various reasons.  Some came to continue their educatio