NJ PIP Police

[jaymatt1978]

I know that Rockland uses their trunk system exclusively but do you know if they kept VHF radios in their cars for backup?? I know that Bergen County cars on the NJICS system did keep their UHF and VHF repeaters

They have the standard out-of-county LE lineup. They transmit on County TG, and also have access to PD Special Ops, as well as the four Interop TGs. They also scan SP Haverstraw (among others), but no TX on that TG.

 

[GTR8000]

I know that Rockland uses their trunk system exclusively but do you know if they kept VHF radios in their cars for backup?? I know that Bergen County cars on the NJICS system did keep their UHF and VHF repeaters

It varies by agency, as one would expect it to. A few kept the older radios installed, most others yanked everything out soon after transitioning to the trunked system. In some cases, as vehicles/apparatus were replaced, those radios were not replaced. Low band radios are still installed in some fire apparatus for mutual aid purposes with neighboring counties (or VHF in some cases for Bergen interop). The county system is extremely robust and resilient, with a lot of overlapping subsite coverage, geo-redundant cores and prime sites, backup 911 center, etc. It would take so much to bring the system down that the idea of wasting already limited space inside a vehicle for a "backup" VHF radio is not really a thing anymore. Seven years and counting of continuous uninterrupted service on the trunked system. Clarkstown has a "backup" conventional 800 MHz repeater on the air that is normally patched with their trunked talkgroup. If necessary, they can use their current 700/800 radios to access that.

I think that's more than enough talk about Rockland in a thread in the NJ forum that is supposed to be focused on the NJPIP PD.

 

[W7FDX]

And holding on like a starving rabid pitbull to anything that won't stop moving. lol. That '15 chase up onto the Turnpike will go down in North Jersey history...

Sounds like a good story...

 

[RadioDitch]

Sounds like a good story...

The video title and caption by 101.5NJ do not reflect my opinions. My opinion is they kicked butt and did an amazing job.

 

[ten13]

My opinion is they kicked butt and did an amazing job.

Really?

And what ultimately happened after this chase was over?: the head of the agency was investigated, initially suspended, eventually terminated, and had his career, retirement, and family life destroyed.

And don't give me this nonsense that "...it was a homicide suspect...." Obviously no one cared about that then, and certainly no one cares about that now (least of all, the ex-chief).

Food for thought to anyone thinking that this is the way it should be done.

 

[APX8000]

This chase didn't destroy his family life, retirement or career, HE did. He was the one that made the decision to order drugs through the internet and have them delivered to a PO box. He picked up the package after it was shammed up, which he thought contained cocaine, and was stopped and arrested. That was no one's doing but his own. I have zero tolerance for someone who carries a badge and conducts criminal activity, period.
The department regularly chased people needlessly or without permission, misused a variety of police tactics, failed to properly investigate officers against whom allegations of misconduct and had a monitor installed by the Prosecutor's Office. He was the manager of that department, but not a good leader. It would have been a very different headline when a family gets hit head on and killed as they are chasing him going against traffic on the PIP. This is why we back off, use stop sticks, put air up, and then when the guy is in a lot someone and it's safe to the pubic in case gun fire erupts, we move in tactically. Bad decisions by bad managers.

 

[GTR8000]

And what ultimately happened after this chase was over?: the head of the agency was investigated, initially suspended, eventually terminated, and had his career, retirement, and family life destroyed.

You seem to be missing and/or glossing over some key facts, as @APX8000 points out. This one single pursuit ultimately played a minor role in Coppola's eventual downfall. It was one piece of a much larger puzzle, as were numerous other questionable pursuits where state guidelines were regularly violated. The guy was a cowboy, acting as if he was the anointed ruler of his own tiny little empire along 11 miles of roadway. His ego and questionable morals were the cause of his life spiral downwards, not one pursuit.

 

[RadioDitch]

Really?

And don't give me this nonsense that "...it was a homicide suspect...."

Here's all I'm going to say. I don't know anyone in the agency, past or present. I don't know any of the internal politics or fallout.

I'm not a cop. Never have been, never will be. I'm not an attorney, or a judge, or a prosecutor of any kind, though I'm related to several with one or more of the above titles. Was it a questionable decision to pursue? I don't know. That's up to the state to decide and the law enforcement community to decide. Was it safe? Again, not for me to say or decide.

I'll leave that to guys like APX8000 and GTR8000 who I respect immensely, and who know far more about that stuff than I ever will, and are 10,000x more qualified to talk about that than I could ever dream of being.

But...this is where my comment came from: A mere outsider looking in concerned more about the crime rate than policies that I barely know anything about. A homicide suspect was captured. One violent offender in custody within just hours of his crime. I apologize if my perspective is skewed or ignorant being from beyond the walls, or if it upsets anyone. But that's just where my comment came from. Respectfully. (shrug)

 

[ten13]

The point is, someone who says he was never a cop, has decided his evaluation of a serious situation should be an accepted one, by commending the cops by immaturely saying that they "kicked butt," an outlandish statement. That chase was, at the low end, ridiculous, and, on the extreme end, criminal malfeasance (possibly even worse).

And it was this particular chase, as well as another outlandish one, which put the ex-chief in the spotlight of the NJ Attorney General's office, which put an "overseerer" in charge of the PIP police, where it was determined that his personal conduct, i.e. condoning, if not encouraging, such potential disasters, was a serious matter not to be overlooked. He was fortunate to be allowed to walk out of the job without serious charges over his head.

From that point on, it was all downhill for him (and a few cops), pointing him in a direction which made his life worse.

So, when someone makes ludicrous statements like were made here, before anyone gets the idea that that video is a display of "good police work,' consider what (rightfully) happened afterwards.

 

[RadioDitch]

Ahhhh the internet...

 

[APX8000]

From that point on, it was all downhill for him (and a few cops), pointing him in a direction which made his life worse.

I’ll have to respectfully disagree with this statement. While I wasn’t part of this particular investigation, no one can conclude “from that point on.” This is the first time he got caught. Everyone I arrest tells me that it was their first time. Investigation, proffers, etc. usually prove otherwise.