PERTH AMBOY – Resolution R-324-6/14 Accepting the proposal of and awarding a contract to the Rodgers Group, LLC for accreditation/recertification in an amount not to exceed $39,000.
Lieutenant Denise Sosulski gave a presentation spoke at the 6/23/14 Caucus Meeting to answer any questions about the Rodgers Group Training Program.
This program has been criticized by Ken Balut who was a former City Council President and a Retired Police Officer.
Sosulski said, “We have previously done this program before, but our accreditation expired. The State Police changed the whole program. The Rodgers Group has mentors to run through our policies to make sure they are under legal standards. They will measure our behaviors to make sure we do not get sued by our actions. They will work one on one with me and they have criteria and goals to make sure we get there. We are in the reaccreditation phase. The benefits to this program is to make sure we subscribe to the best practices and what we are allowed to do to avoid lawsuits. There will be training in November and I will help in doing the training for the Department. We will also know what to put in our reports and this reaccreditation will be in the last 3 years. For anyone interested, there’s a Power Point presentation that can be shown. Officers will all be trained to do the same thing. If the police don’t follow the best practices and procedures, there will be discipline involved. If we don’t follow the best practices, we will not get accredited. The Rodgers Group is the only New Jersey Company that does this.”
Sosulski continued, “New graduates are already doing Best Practices Procedures. They have no bad practices in place. This is the program of New Jersey Police Chief Association that accredits us. We will have a copy of the form when we are accredited. The first time the program was implemented, it spoke to national standards, but this revamped program is specific to New Jersey. We were first awarded the accreditation in 2009. We lost it in 2012. Then the program was revamped by the New Jersey State Police Chiefs. I will be the main facilitator and will work with the other divisions in the Police Department (Detective Bureau, etc.)
Resident Alan Silber had questioned the Rodgers Group at the 6/23/14 Caucus Meeting. He questioned the $39,000 for the accreditation/recertification and how was this different from the $20,000 that was spent the first time the training was done.
B.A. Greg Fehrenbach said, “This program on the agenda now is for online training and accreditation.”
Silber also said, “The Police Chief accredits us and the Rodgers Group trains us. How many municipalities are accredited?”
Silber answered his own question when he told the Council, “It’s less than 20% of municipalities in New Jersey. This is not coming from the state. We should table this.”
B.A. Greg Fehrenbach also said, “The program offered by the Rodgers Group is much more affordable than the national program. Middlesex County has a lot of urban municipalities. One single lawsuit will swamp the cost of this program.”
At the 7/9/14 Council Meeting, former Council President Ken Balut said, “In 2012 they said we were accredited. When did we lose it? The accreditation was supposed to save money for insurance. It’s a scam. We have paid almost one million dollars on this. You (The Council) gave the chief a raise and we are not accredited. Did we save money on insurance? The Chief never told us we had lost our accreditation.”
