One in an occasional series
NJSACOP Legends & Pioneers
Chief Emile Bugnon
On Monday, September 27, 1965, the Passaic Herald-News published an article that began with the following paragraph:
“ Appointed a patrolman one day and chief of police the very next day. This is the saga of Emile E. Bugnon, who will end more than 38 years of service when he retires next year at the age of 70.”
Emile Bugnon was appointed as a Wood-Ridge patrolman on April 14, 1927, and the next day named acting chief. Six months later he assumed the role of Chief of Police. The Herald-News article noted that Chief Bugnon not only had a record of long service, but also that“ he brought nothing but honor to himself and Wood-Ridge.”
This is why people from all over the United States, and even outside the country, are expected to be present when Bugnon is honored at a testimonial dinner at the Hotel Robert Treat, Newark, on Nov. 19. Arthur J. Sills, attorney general of New Jersey, will be the guest speaker.
Emile Bugnon was born in New York City, growing up just a block from Hell’ s Kitchen. He moved to Wood- Ridge with his family at 18 years of age in 1914. He worked as an apprentice at a New York printing equipment machine manufacturer but left that job and volunteered for the Navy when the United States entered World War I in 1917. During the War he saw service in the North Atlantic theater. Returning home after the war he resumed his job with the manufacturing company, but eventually decided upon a career in policing, joining his hometown police department in 1927. Under his leadership, the department grew from the 2-man agency was when he first joined to a 20-man force at the time of his retirement.
Chief Bugnon not only served as an exemplary leader of his police department but also had a long legacy of service as the leader of multiple Chiefs of Police associations: he was elected as the fourth president of the Bergen County Police Chiefs Association in 1934. Five years later his colleagues elected him as president of the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police. In 1952 he became the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
In 1949, Chief Bugnon was chosen as one of the 115 police chiefs from around the country to serve a five-day tour of duty in Washington, DC for the inauguration of President Harry S. Truman. Also selected for that honor were Morristown Chief Fred Roff and Perth Amboy Chief John Murray.
Always a believer in the importance of training, he was in the first class of the New Jersey Police Academy in 1929. The class had a total enrollment of 31. Throughout his tenure as chief of police, he encouraged his personnel to acquire as much specialized training as possible. He summed up his view of police and police work in the Herald-News article:“ A policeman should be in good physical condition, of good moral character, ambitious to do a good job, have high intelligence and must respect the rights of others.”
9