State Police Actively Patrolling Fort, No Plans For New Barracks

Since Sept. 16 the NJ State Police have been on active patrol of the now shuttered Fort Monmouth property and so far, they say, things are going smoothly.

Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Sansone, commander of the Fort Monmouth state police detail, said that there are three patrols every day and night at the property and a sergeant on duty at their fort headquarters inside the former home of the Department of Defense police, on Murphy Drive.

Contrary to previous reports, there are no plans to build a new state police barracks on the site.

Sansone said that the transition between the Army's police force and his, along with a new security firm hired by the Army to man the gates and , has been smooth.

The building the state police now occupy was once a fully functioning police station with a command center and holding cells. Moving in here, he said, was "basically a turn-key operation."

Sansone recently gave Patch a tour of the new digs, which are still in the clean-up phase since the DOD police left them in a bit of a mess. The walls and ceilings, which look old and drab, await a fresh coat of paint. There are empty rooms and others filled with old office furniture. 

No matter said Sansone. "You give me a network, you give me a radio, I can patrol."

What is up to snuff here is the command center with the state police radio, county radio and a wall of security surveillance screens that are fed by roughly 30 cameras around the fort, Sansone said. Just down the hall is a processing room for anyone who happens to be arrested on the property and, of course, working jail cells.

There is also a clean and modern room for briefing and computers for officers to file their reports. Still to come are offices for the two sergeants stationed here.

Sansone's officers patrol the entire fort property that spans Oceanport, Eatontown and Tinton Falls, including the Charles Wood area and Howard Commons, the former military housing that has recently of Eatontown's mayor.

Mayor Gerald Tarantolo called the old neighborhood a "blight" and said he was worried about the safety of school children who live in neighboring apartments and are suppossed to walk by Howard Commons on their way to school.

The housing, which is not up to code, is marked for demolition. Tarantolo and fort redevelopers are pushing for the Army to wreck the place sooner rather than later.

The specifics of the policing plan for the fort are classified, however, Sansone said, it does include periodic sweeps by state police patrols. On a recent patrol through the area, Sansone said his officers didn't see any signs of squatters in the empty buildings. The area is also enclosed with a locked gate and chain link fence, which the police can open for inspection.

In addition to their patrols of fort property, the state police will continue to respond to Shrewsbury Township, something they previously did from their base in Hamilton.

Sansone has met with the police chiefs of Oceanport, Tinton Falls and Eatontown to brief them on his unit's plans and said, "The local police departments will be responsible for nothing on this base."

In the reverse, state police will be available to respond incidents in the surrounding boroughs as, what Sansone refers to, a force multiplier. In addition, Sansone said, two of the state police's Central Jersey tactical units are now based here. These units are able to respond to municipal incidents as far away as Point Pleasant. Also under consideration, he said, is relocating state police K-9 team and SWAT teams to Fort Monmouth.

So far things are quiet around the fort, with only the caretakers employees, security personnel, and members of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority who make regular visits. As time goes on, and individual properties are parceled out to investors for myriad uses, the fort area will see more traffic. The state police here will have to adapt their policing along with the changes, but Sansone says, that won't be a problem.

"I'm passionate about our work at this place," he said.