Police make a PACT with the community
North Brunswick officers focus on community relations, crime watch
BY JENNIFER AMATO Staff Writer

NORTH BRUNSWICK - The newly initiated PACT unit of the township police department is forming Police and Community Teams (PACT) under the direction of Detective Dan Cano and Patrolman Jason Hatez.

The new branch was created as a pilot program in September by the mayor's office and the police department to bridge the gap between public safety and the community, according to Cano. Their mission is to solve the problems that are unique to a specific neighborhood using a neighborhood watch.

"Once you open the lines of communication at a meeting, anything can come up," Cano said. "They feel confident about talking to the police about their problems."

The police advise that burglary, robbery, stolen property, automobile theft, assault and sexual offenses should be reported through 911 immediately. The dispatcher should be advised of the address or location of the incident, a description of the suspects, a vehicle description and license plate number and any other observed details.

For less severe circumstances, the neighborhood watch serves as an information gathering system. Beforehand, officers of the patrol division would participate in community operational policing, at which time they would observe situations during their shifts.Although the same protocol will be in place, the PACT unit is amore specialized division that can pay more attention to more specific areas. They now meet with different homeowner associations or community groups to address residential concerns.

"We didn't abandon the idea of the whole department doing community policing. This is an enhancement of what we already do by providing these guys with resources and time," former Police Director Kenneth McCormick said.

After the initial meeting with a group, a community watch will be set up to designate a resident tomake observations of unusual activity, such as strangers lurking around unoccupied houses, loitering around cars or door-to-door salesmen who look like they are casing homes. The officers do not want residents to more thoroughly investigate but will go themselves to see if a problem exists.

"Thismakes usmore aware of everyday problems and if we can address everyday problems, then it will make this a better place to live, work and raise our children," Hatez said.

Thus far, the two men have gone to more than 10 neighborhoods and have attended senior breakfasts, firehouse discussions, block parties, winter concerts, sporting events and school programs to meet a cross-section of residents. They hope to coordinatemore with the township Quality of Life Teamto enhance their services, and they want to offer additional programs for residents such as a self-defense class or an identity theft seminar in order to keep the neighborhood watches active.

"It has been demonstrated that when you have an active neighborhood watch, it reduces crime in an area because it's like having 50 or 60 sets of eyes you didn't have before," McCormick said.

Besides criminal activity, the PACT unit can also defer other residential complaints to the appropriate departments. For example, sometimes the police department would receive a call about overgrown trees, which is handled by the Department of PublicWorks, or they can alert Code Enforcement to an overcrowded residence. Issues of poor road conditions, traffic, random shopping carts or recycling can also be diverted to the proper administrators.

"[The unit] will go out and talk to the citizens firsthand, giving them another way to deal with the public and to get information," said Lt. Roger Reinson, who was previously responsible for overseeing the community watch program.

To contact the PACT officers, call (732) 247-0922, ext. 329 for Cano and ext. 315 for Hatez.