Just as Sinatra became a household name in the city of Hobo-
ken, Carroll became a well-known commodity within local and
state government. A decade of work as State Delegate for Local
2 may very well be the reason Carroll had connections with im-
portant legislators. Before Behrens became Local 2 President, he
remembers being amazed at Carroll’s reputation and ability to
influence decision makers.
“He had an inside door to everybody,” Behrens stresses, re-
calling a visit he made with Carroll to the State House in Trenton.
“He took me in the back door, up through a private passage.”
When the two entered from the hidden passage, Behrens was
taken aback by the way assemblymen openly greeted Carroll by
name. He recalls an encounter in the State House halls when
Governor Brendan Byrne uttered, “Hey, Dick. How are ya?”
His founding father wisdom became a trusted source of ad-
vice for numerous members, who knew that they could always
ask Carroll for guidance navigating through tough career moves.
“In ‘79 he was an old-timer, but you still came up here and
knocked on his door and asked, ‘How do I do this? How do I ap-
proach the mayor on this issue?’” Behrens explains. “He would
give you guidance that no one else had.”
Congrats to Carroll
Richard Carroll, police pension trustee with the 1944 Police
and Firemen’s Retirement System has opened a new chapter in
the system’s history.
Carroll accomplished another “first” when elected to chair
the forerunner of the PFRS board. The Hoboken political ty-
coon was so respected that the State PBA nominated him to be
it’s inaugural pension trustee. Carroll was unaware of this new
esteemed role, though, until he arrived at a State PBA meeting,
where he was presented with a piece of paper that showed at
least 100 signatures of members who knew they wanted Carroll
to have a seat at the decision-making table.
“I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. Then I got elected,” Car-
roll declares, checking off another accomplishment on his ré-
sumé of service to the union.
Retired Cop Wins
Acting under an emergency resolution, the Senate last night
adopted by a vote of 34-to-0 a bill by Assemblyman Thomas A.
Gallo… to allow retired Hoboken Police Sergeant Richard Carroll
to serve four years on the Police and Firemen’s Retirement System.
In other words, when Carroll announced his retirement in
1979, local government scrambled to draft a special piece of leg-
islation to keep him on the PFRS board for an additional four
years.
Perhaps it was an emergency because during the 31 years he
was an active member of Local 2, Carroll had formed relation-
ships with legislators that not many others had. He used that
political capital to convene negotiations for Local 2’s first collec-
tive bargaining agreement, one of the first of its kind that paved
the way for improving salary and working conditions.
“When I started, I used to make $1,800 a year on the job with
a $300 Christmas bonus,” he details about his salary in the
1940s. “The mayor helped get us a contract for $10,000. Then, of
course, everybody else followed, registering contracts through-
out the state.”
Carroll reflects on the working conditions of law enforcement
before negotiating that first contract. Work hours were not regu-
lated. Officers worked overtime without pay. There was no legal
ground to stand on to refute unfair working conditions.
“We used to finish work at 8 a.m. and come back on at 4 p.m.
They had us working election days with no pay,” Carroll voices.
Old newspaper clippings from “New Jersey’s Finest” document some of Dick
Carroll’s lifetime achievements.
“All of that was eliminated once our Local president could say
‘Hey, wait a minute. That’s a violation of the contract.’”
Carroll sightings
Dick Carroll is a walking, talking PBA history book. It’s not just
his age that makes him a person of interest, but what he remem-
bers about the work that he refuses to give up.
His son, Richard Carroll Jr., who served as a law enforcement
officer with the Port Authority for 30 years, is the first to confirm
that his father can’t sit still. “He just doesn’t sit back and smell
the coffee,” Richard muses. “He’s constantly in motion.”
What’s kept him active for all this time? Richard says it’s a
simple combination of his three greatest passions: the PBA, the
credit union and bowling.
Dick continues to live out his passions, taking the train from
Belmar to Hoboken once a month to work in the credit union
office and continuing his role as an insurance consultant for the
PBA.
In Belmar, where Richard and Dick both now reside, Richard’s
typical day working at the local hardware store is filled with
what he calls “dad sightings.”
“I just saw your father walking down the street,” Richard hears
multiple times a week from locals who have come to know Car-
roll.
When Richard isn’t catching sight of his father on a random
mission to replace a battery or deposit a check at the bank, he
receives phone calls from his parents, who both pick up a house
phone to check in with their son and wave to him from their
nearby apartment balcony that faces the front of the hardware
store.
Moments like these trigger fond memories of growing up in
the Carroll household, where Richard, the oldest of five, was giv-
en plenty of advice on where to start his career in law enforce-
ment once returning from the Navy.
“He’s the one who directed me to go to the Port Authority,”
Richard says, detailing the day Carroll sifted through the recruit-
ment letters sent from various police departments.
“This is where you’re going,” Richard recounts as his father’s
words. He figured that after serving many years on the PBA pen-
sion committee and as State Delegate, his father knew what he
was talking about and followed his advice to join Port Authority
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