GTPD Community Relations Bureau Receives Honor

The Gloucester Township Police Department submitted the following press release:

On March 28, 2012, the officers of the Gloucester Township Police Department Community Relations Bureau (CRB) received the 2012 Law Enforcement Recognition Award for Community Policing Excellence from the South Jersey Chapter (No. 170) of the American Society for Industrial Security (also known as ASIS International) at their annual law enforcement awards dinner.      

The 4 officers assigned to the Community Relations Bureau—Lt. Brendan Barton, Cpl. Sean Grannan, Ptl. Jennifer McLaughlin, and Ptl. David Belcher—were honored for their efforts in improving community policing and outreach programs in Gloucester Township. Their accomplishments included implementation of the Gloucester Township Police Department's Community Notification System. The Community Notification System has approximately 7,000 residents and 340 businesses registered to receive emails about safety bulletins, wanted persons, events, and traffic advisories. In addition the system sends out immediate text messages to inform the community of road closures, safety alerts, and emergency information. The CRB was recognized for their efforts to improve relations with business owners to become partners in public safety.

The CRB was tasked with the implementation of a 7th grade DARE program, which concentrates on pre-teenage students making better decisions to thwart peer pressure. This is in addition to the DARE programs which are in place for pre-schoolers to 5th graders in all of the schools in Gloucester Township.

In addition the CRB was insturmental in the implentation of the "Bullying Awareness Through Law Enforcement" program (Project B.A.T.L.E.). This program is an anti-bullying awareness program for middle school- and high school-age students, which utilizes counselors to work with police to prevent potential bullying situations in our schools and community. The CRB is the main contact for the department for most inquiries, and they attend many community related events.    

For more information on ASIS International visit www.asisonline.org. For more information on the Gloucester Township Police Community Relations Bureau, visit our website at www.glotwp.com/police.