March 2026 | The New Jersey Police Chief Magazine 5
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’ S REPORT
Mitchell C. Sklar
The New Jersey Police Chief Magazine: Today & Yesterday
Each month I go through the NJSACOP archives to write the“ From the Archives” feature of our NEW JERSEY POLICE CHIEF MAGAZINE. These items, taken from our meeting minutes and other sources, extend as far back as our first meeting. I hope you agree they provide a fascinating insight into not only our organization’ s history, but also the history of our state, nation, and the policing profession.
Going through this exercise, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the evolution of the NJ Police Chief magazine itself. Our monthly publication does not go back quite as far as our monthly meeting minutes, so I thought I would begin with the March 1999 edition. Full disclosure: I chose this particular edition not only because it, like the magazine you are reading now, was published in the month of March, but because it contained this little note from the President:“ The Executive Board will be interviewing candidates for the Executive Director’ s position on Monday, March 29 th at the West Windsor Police Department. We sent out 11 invitations for the position, of which 10 have responded back to us.” As you might have guessed, I was fortunate enough to be one of the 11 invited to that interview, and nearly 27 years later, I have the honor to write this column each month.
The first thing to note about that March 1999 edition is that, rather than a magazine, the NJ Police Chief was in fact a newsletter. Longtime members will recall that familiar blue mailer that arrived( US Postal Service permitting) sometime around the first of the month. Believe it or not, at that time the newsletter was still copied in the State Office, stapled, folded, stamped and mailed out, all by hand in the Office.
Looking at the content of that March 1999 newsletter, a few interesting things stand out: specifically, a notation about a recent court decision and an announcement about an upcoming State Chiefs Meeting. The note about the state Supreme Court decision( State v. Widmaier), indicated that the Court unanimously held that“ anything short of an unconditional, unequivocal assent to an officer’ s request to take a breathalyzer test is a refusal.” The newsletter also informed the membership that the
NJ Press Association has been invited to appear before the membership at an upcoming meeting. They want to discuss open access to records and the release of information.
A sign of things to come ….
A year later, the March 2000 NJ Police Chief newsletter informed the membership that the Association was working on constructing our own internet homepage.
By March 2002 the newsletter had grown to 24 pages and was printed and mailed offsite. That edition included a notice that on the 27 th of the month New Jersey would become the first state in the nation to honor fallen law enforcement officers with a Law Enforcement Memorial license plate.
Starting with the September 2006 edition, the Association finally said goodbye to the old blue newsletter. The New Jersey Police Chief was now truly a magazine – printed in full color, with a wide range of articles, notices, ads, and promotions for the Association’ s various programs and services. The March 2009 edition notified the membership that the current issue of the New Jersey Police Chief Magazine was in fact to be the final edition – of the printed version, that is.
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