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Community Corner

Shrewsbury Police Want More Cops

Police Chief John D. Wilson made his case for an administrative and operational commanders at the Shrewsbury Council meeting on Monday.

The hot topic for the Shrewsbury Borough Council Meeting on Monday night was the request for the addition of a new position for the Police Department. Police Chief John D. Wilson III and Lt. Louis Ferrera gave a presentation regarding the need for the addition of two posts: administrative and operational commanders. They would be two distinct job openings with similar duties.

The administrative commander would be in charge of training, budget decisions, media relations, scheduling, personnel and reports.The operational commander would share some of the same responsibilities, but would also be more heavily involved in the duties of day to day police work. His or her duties would include crime analysis, maintenance of the evidence vault, and overseeing of the detective bureau.

Chief Wilson faced a barrage of questions from the council, and he delivered detailed and informative answers.“We understand we are in a time of financial crisis,” Wilson stated, “And we have worked hard to reduce the operating budget, but we feel the need for an administrative and operational commander is necessary.” Councilman Meyer questioned whether the candidates needed to be law enforcement or civilian.

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Wilson stated that he felt it was important for the individuals to have knowledge of how a police department works and the needs of the department.“In my opinion,” Wilson said, “We need someone with the knowledge of what a police department does, so yes, I would say that it needs to be a law enforcement official.”

When Chief Wilson provided the list of duties that these positions would require, Councilman Dodge meticulously addressed each duty on each list, asking for further details on the job description and questioned whether any of the duties could be performed by a civilian.

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“Something like budgeting seems more clerical,” Dodge concluded. “I don’t think you need a law enforcement official for that.”

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