12
NEW JERSEY COPS n AUGUST 2014
Local for all seasons
Vernon Township Local 285 changes with the weather
n BY JOSHUA SIGMUND
NON TOWNSHI
P
VER
The fake ski season
passes begin to pop up
like weeds sprouting in
LOCAL 285
an otherwise pristine
garden; simultaneously, swarms of skis and
snowboards went up
and vanished like dust
in the wind from the
Mountain Creek Resort
parking lot. This can only mean one
thing…
Winter has officially begun in Vernon
Township.
With the snowy season in this resort
town comes throngs of tourists ready to
hit the slopes, bringing the town’s seasonal population up from roughly 25,000
year-round residents to nearly 35,000.
“This drastically impacts our police
department,” explains Vernon Township
Local 285 State Delegate Keith Curry. “You
can have 10-11,000 extra people come
through in a weekend making traffic on
our single-lane roads extremely heavy
and pushing our manpower abilities.”
Dealing with a demographic of people
from North Jersey cities creates seasonal
changes for the officers.
“We get city and inner city people and
you’re dealing with people who change
drastically from the locals,” Curry
explained. “Call volumes spike, there’s
traffic accidents and lots more thefts.
We’ve seen 100 snowboards stolen in a
week; we don’t even have the manpower
to file our own reports. Our midnight guys
just take the resort’s security reports.”
Six months later, when snow pants are
replaced with swim trunks and ski goggles with… well, swim goggles, a different
appearance to similar challenges faces
Local 285 officers.
Going
Local
Annual Torch Run about to launch from Mountain Creek Ski Resort.”
“The waterpark crowd brings with it
just as much traffic but also end-of-day
drunk fights and disorderly crowds,”
Curry added.
Even the off-seasons bring tourists to
Vernon, searching for mountain biking
from March to May and apple and pumpkin picking from September to December. With these year-round activities, it’s
no surprise that some have called Vernon
Township officers “Recreation Police.”
“There’s really not much of a lull,”
emphasized Curry. “We can see six-toeight thousand people in a fall weekend
so farms like Heaven Hill will hire us to
work there when needed.”
While Local 285’s 32 officers are well
trained – even becoming ATV-certified for
rough-terrain emergencies including
those across Vernon’s 20-mile stretch of
Appalachian Trail – arguably their biggest
asset is their relationships with their citizens, neighbors and elected officials.
“The public complains about traffic,
garbage and trespassing, but for the most
part, the community is quite supportive,”
Curry acknowledged. “People support
our PBA, including Mountain Creek – the
county’s biggest employer – which
donates its lodge to us for our annual
beefsteak. We’ll get 500 people out for
that. In the winter when things get really
busy we work very well together.”
Mountain Creek is also the starting
point for the annual Law Enforcement
Torch Run for Special Olympics, a picturesque kickoff symbolizing a shared
dedication to a great cause.
Internally, the relationship between
Local 285 and Vernon Township Police
Department Chief Randy Mills is about
as productive as they come.
“He talks to us before any decisions
are made and we often come to agreements,” Curry said. “We don’t always get
what we want, but he lets us have input
and everyone often ends up pretty
happy. Likewise, we have a good relationship with our mayor as well. If he
tells us something, he sticks by it. In
some towns, everyone is always fighting.
But here, I walk out of these meetings
and I feel pretty good. It’s both ends
understanding that there has to be an
agreement to have progress and a goodworking relationship.” d