Haddonfield Officials Deny Plan to Merge Police with Countywide Force

A debate about whether the borough wants to merge its police force with a countywide department is heating up.

Borough officials have repeatedly reasoned that a merger with a newly formed Camden County police force is not a good idea. They said it would likely lead to a decrease of service and autonomy.

But the issue surfaced again Thursday in a comment stream on a Haddon Patch Haddonfield police story. A user posted a comment claiming the borough had circulated a request for proposal, RFP, for a shared police service with seven surrounding towns, not including Camden. The comment also insinuated commissioners Ed Borden and Jeff Kasko backed the plan.

That comment generated a response from Borden who said: "Not sure where the rumor of this supposed 'RFP' came from. There is no RFP concerning any merger with the Camden County Police. Period."

Camden County Freeholders recently established a county police force that mainly has the responsibility of patrolling Camden City, one of the poorest, most violent cities in the country.

In response to Borden, a user identified as Bill T. said: "Mr. Borden.....are you really going to play the semantics game ? You are well aware of the RPF that came out today!!!! Why would you try to mislead everyone with your word games? A lie by omission is still a lie. There IS an RPF for consolidation of police administrations for seven towns including Haddonfield ( probably the first step to go to the county police force) Tell the truth Mr. Borden the town deserves it...!!!"

The user identified as Bill T. is not Bill Tourtellotte, the past president of the borough civic association.

Borden and Kasko are running for reelection next month. There are six candidates for three commissioners seats in a May 14 election. Borden is the borough director of public safety and oversees the police department. He is also a former Camden County Prosecutor, the chief law-enforcement officer of the county. Kasko was not contacted for comment and did not comment in the stream.

Borden later responded: "First, I repeat that there is no proposal on the table for the Haddonfield police department to merge with any county force. I would be completely opposed to any such idea and have said so repeatedly. What appears to have 'come out' is a draft under consideration by representatives of seven neighboring towns to see whether any cost savings can be achieved by sharing certain administration costs. As I understand it, the draft has not even been approved by the committee, which includes Mayor Colombi and our borough administrator. No town has approved or even considered the proposal to retain a consultant to gather and analyze this information. If anything, sharing such costs would be a way to counter state pressure for consolidation. If we are to be able to withstand such pressure we must explore ways to save costs while maintaining the independence of our own force."

Borough Administrator Sharon McCullough said Thursday that Haddonfield commissioners have not "seen any proposal to merge borough police" with any other departments. But she said she and other town managers often speak about how to cut expenses by sharing costs.

"We have a group that gets together from a couple of different towns to look at all sorts of things we could possibly do as shared services," McCullough said Thursday afternoon. She declined to say if she knew of any "draft under consideration" being circulated.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story attributed a comment in a story stream to Bill Tourtellotte, a past president of the borough civic association. That was incorrect.