Advance Robbinsville
MAY 2023 FREE
COMMUNITYNEWS.ORG
Towns struggle to recruit new cops INTerVieW By BiLL SANserViNO
Robbinsville Police Ptl. Connor Boyle meets with fellow officers after being the victim of a hit-and-run on April 23, 2023. Pictured are Ptl. Rene Godfrey (left), Ptl. Boyle, Sgt. Scott Kivet and Ptl. Cassidy Kyle.
Officer recovering after being struck by hit-and-run driver By BiLL SANserViNO
A Robbinsville Township police officer continues to convalesce after being was run over in a hit-and-run accident on April 23. Ptl. Connor Boyle, 25, was speaking to the driver of a disabled car on Rt. 130 South near Voelbel Road when he was
struck by a 2020 Volkswagen Passat driven by East Windsor resident Rachel Glatt, said Lt. Thomas Egan. The Robbinsville Police released a dashcam video from Boyle’s patrol car that shows the officer helping the disabled motorist during rainy weather at about 11:30 p.m. “There’s a parking lot right
there, we’re going to push you into there okay?” Boyle said to the motorist. At that moment, the Volkwagen comes from behind, hits the patrol car, strikes Boyle and then continues on without stopping. The officer flew onto the hood of the Volkswagen and then was thrown to the ground. See BOYLE, Page 4
Mayor Dave Fried recently sat down with the Robbinsville Advance to talk about issues currently impacting the township. The first two parts of the Q&A resulting from that interview ran in the March and April issues of the Advance and addressed open space and Mercer County elections. To read those articles, go to communitynews.org. This month, Fried talks about the police department and difficulties facing law enforcement in 2023. One of the biggest problems is the dwindling number of applicants for police jobs. “Law enforcement agencies across the United States are struggling to recruit and hire police officers,” said 2019 report by the International Association of Chiefs of Police titled, A crisis for Law Enforcement. “Though agency-specific needs exist depending on size or locale, the difficulty with recruitment is a significant problem that is broadly affecting the field of law enforcement—it is not simply a result of poor agency management or localized failures,” the report states. Since then, the situation has only gotten worse. In 2021, the N.J. State Police reported that applications dropped from 15,00020,000 to just 2,130 over the previ-
ous one-year period. Officials in several Mercer County communities interviewed by the Advance, including Fried, have also said that they’re seeing the same trend locally. An edited version of Fried’s conversation with the Advance on the matter appears below. Robbinsville Advance: A few months ago, Safewise (an online safety consulting website) named Robbinsville as one of the safest towns in New Jersey. Can you tell me a little about public safety in town? Dave Fried: Public safety is one of my top responsibilities, and I’m really sad that policing has gotten to where it is in the in the country. I 100% blame the elected officials for the state of policing. We need to support our police departments. We need to provide better training. We need to provide better oversight. Far too often we allow police officers to go out ill-equipped, illtrained, ill-supported, and then act shocked that we have bad outcomes. Having a safe town, having good outcomes doesn’t happen by accident. You have to hire great people, and you have to constantly train them. It shocks me to this day that little Robbinsville is one of the few towns in the state of New Jersey, if not the only town in the See FRIED, Page 8
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