The NJ Police Chief Magazine - Volume 31, Number 11 | Page 8

The New Jersey Police Chief Magazine | Summer 2025

Continued from previous page Judge Kiely’ s subject will be“ Relations Between Judge and Police.” Another of the principal speakers will be Edgar Hoover, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

1955 On August 23 rd, at a regional police chiefs meeting, Collingswood Chief William Beck, President of the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, announced the NJSACOP’ s endorsement of the establishment“ of an academy where all policemen would be trained.”

1973 On the morning of August 6 th Woodbine Police Chief Philip DeSantis was stabbed to death when he stopped and questioned a robbery suspect. The suspect had earlier that morning stabbed a gas station attendant in a neighboring town. Chief DeSantis had served as Chief of the Woodbine Police Department for more than 20 years and was due to retire in about 8 months when he was fatally wounded.

Chief Philip DeSantis

1997 The July 23, 1997, edition of the Central Jersey Home News published a feature article entitled“ Army, cops learn from each other.”

Cranford is playing host community to a special guest; an Army representative participating in a new program jointly run by the New Jersey Police Chiefs Association and the U. S. Military Academy.

Chief Harry Wilde

In the summer of 1997, the Cranford Police Department hosted a 20-year-old West Point cadet who was participating in a nascent program through the NJSACOP. That cadet, Andrew Short – who went on to a successful 24 year career in the military before retiring as a colonel in 2021 – was the very first cadet to participate in the NJSACOP program through West Point and the state association.

Cadet Short spent a week working with the Cranford Police Department before visiting with other law enforcement in New Jersey, such as the Union County Prosecutor’ s Office in Elizabeth and the John H. Stamler Police Academy in Scotch Plains. Short, a Michigan native, noted at the time that police work and the military have many similar aspects and he was eager to observe how law enforcement in New Jersey operates.

The NJSACOP had already sent police chiefs to West Point in 1993, which started the process of instituting the program that has steadily grown and evolved into the NJSACOP Command & Leadership Academy. Cadet Short’ s visit was a landmark moment in the initiative – a true exchange of ideas, methods and protocols between local police and the U. S. Army.

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