Congressman Gottheimer meets the PBA members from Sussex, Warren and surrounding counties n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Sunday Best
Congressman Gottheimer meets the PBA members from Sussex, Warren and surrounding counties n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
76 NEW JERSEY COPS ■ APRIL 2018
“ Meet the Press” and“ Face the Nation” paled in comparison to the provocative interchange that Congressman Josh Gottheimer hosted on Sunday morning, March 26.
In this episode of“ Face the PBA” members from New Jersey’ s 5th Congressional District, which includes much of northern Bergen County, small parts of Passaic County and 35 towns and townships in Sussex and Warren counties, the U. S. representative wanted to meet the law enforcement officers and get into some issues and answers. The issues were the ones profoundly affecting life on the job, and Gottheimer wanted to provide answers more than he wanted to further his re-election campaign.
“ He’ s 100 percent pro-law enforcement and not about politics at all,” observed Vernon Township Local 285 State Delegate Keith Curry, who coordinated the event.“ The things he kept hitting on were about bringing more of the taxpayers’ money back to the district.”
Gottheimer called the gathering a roundtable. It actually started out as a law enforcement appreciation breakfast. Then it was elevated to an awards event and then to a roundtable at the American Legion Post 68 in Newton.
Approximately 25 members of law enforcement representing Sussex County Local 138, Sussex County Corrections Local 378, Hackettstown Local 369, Hardyston Local 374, Ringwood Boro Local 247, Vernon Local 285, West Milford Township Local 162 and the NJ State Police sat at tables forming a horseshoe with Gottheimer seated between Curry and Pete Stillianessis, president of the State Troopers Non-Commissioned Officers Association.
Gottheimer’ s team came to the roundtable with an agenda devoted to the hot-button issues dominating the national landscape for law enforcement. The epidemic of opioid-related overdoses and increasing school security generated enthusiastic discourse from members, especially when the congressman talked about how to provide more resources to support policing in both situations.
The discussion segued from opioids to how bail reform has exacerbated the problem of repeat offenders overdosing on heroin. Sussex County Corrections Local 138 State Delegate Larry Doherty explained to Gottheimer how bail reform is contributing to heroin-related deaths more than any other factor. Often people who have overdosed and need Narcan to be administered are released on bail and back on the street as soon as six hours after the incident.
Of course, bail reform is not a federal issue, and it is something the NJ State PBA has been after state government to address. But Gottheimer’ s interest exemplified how vested he is in the PBA members who came on a Sunday morning, which is probably the toughest time to get a cop to come to an event.
“ As cops, we’ re good at reading people, and he seemed genuine in his interest to support those issues,” noted Tommy Smith, Hackettstown Local 369 State Delegate, who helped Curry coordinate the roundtable.
“ He seemed extremely receptive to us, and I feel he has proven throughout his first term that he has law enforcement’ s best interest in mind when he goes to Washington D. C.,” Smith continued.“ We want to tackle these issues, but we need the laws to be stronger to support these issues, and that was a point we made to him.”
As part of his mission to provide support and resources, Gottheimer met individually with members from each Local in attendance. He emphasized his initiative to increase the 33 cents out of every federal tax dollar that returns to the district, and he reminded that his staff includes a director of return on investment, a position created to help police departments procure federal grants.
One of the resources Gottheimer noted that he would like to tap is the federal Law Enforcement Support Office, which provides military surplus equipment such as vehicles, rifles, scopes and even office furniture to law enforcement facilities.
“ Our officers are heroes, and they deserve our full support for everything they do to protect our communities,” Gottheimer pledged after the roundtable concluded.“ I hosted this because I want Jersey cops to know that I’ m here to fight for them. That’ s my job.”
Gottheimer gave everybody a homework assignment to go back to their bosses and tell them what he can do for departments in the way of federal funding and other support. That directive seemed to accentuate the outcome of this Sunday morning roundtable.
“ No matter if it’ s a big department or small department, he wanted to create an open line of communication,” Curry observed.“ He’ s straight up about what he wants to do to help us.” d