Police Move to 12-Hour Shifts

The Police Department recently moved many of it officers to 12-hour shifts, ending a 40-plus-year run of 10-hour patrol shifts.

The new schedule aims to reduce overtime.

Coupled with other structural changes implemented by Chief W. Harry Earle, it has also helped police create a new unit dedicated to fighting crime in problematic areas.

The new unit will consist of squads known as Operational Response Units, or ORUs. The squads will be responsible for patrolling "trouble areas" and sections of the township from which police receive numerous citizen complaints.

"As the warm spring weather arrives, these officers will be concentrating on bike patrol, targeting known, wanted criminals, and improving community interaction," Earle said. "We need to get the feedback from our residents about what is going on in their neighborhoods."

Mayor David Mayer spoke of the Police Department's schedule shift during Council's March 14 meeting, when he introduced the township's 2011 budget.

"We are cutting our overtime in large part because of the 12-hour shifts our police department enacted several weeks ago," he said.

Earle credited the officers working under him for agreeing to the changes he and other officials saw as necessary for the Police Department and township.

"This effort could not have been done without the cooperation and partnership that we have with our Gloucester Township (Fraternal Order of Police) Lodge (No.) 206 union members," he said. "My officers recognized the need to change the way we were doing things, and for that I am proud of them. It was a win-win situation for the community and for our officers."

Police noted the increase in nuisance-type calls that comes with the warmer weather.

"This year, we are getting out early to make our presence known," Earle said.

Police will use bike patrols, low-speed golf carts in parks, and enforcement details similar to the St. Patrick's Day DWI checkpoint to make the township safer.