TLS Exclusive interview with outgoing Lakewood Police Chief Rob Lawson

I graduated um College in 1974 and I was continuing my studies um I was a Psychology premen major and you know I had plans of being a doctor um my my grandfather who was a large real estate developer in lakeood back in the 19 probably late 1930s 1940s uh he passed away the year I I graduated from college and I ended up coming down to Lakewood to run the family business um which is Lakewood Country Club um some of my friends at that time were interested in becoming police officers and they took the police test and said H come with us and I said okay so sort of on a l I took the the police test um they end up failing the test and I passed it and and um I ended up being hired and at that time it was like a new exciting exciting thing for me um not something I had ever planned to do um I was hired in February of 1981 I went to the police academy with four other um L with born and raised guys and um when I graduated from the police academy I was assigned a foot patrol in downtown Lakewood um Clifton Avenue East for Street which at that time you know was a fairly Danger dangerous place you know it was known for drug dealing and criminal activity and I was a little apprehensive but you know I enjoy being on foot patrol I enjoy the contact with the people and I stayed there for 5 years the the officers I came on with you know requested to go to motorized Patrol but I really enjoyed walk walking the streets in downtown Lely so ultimately uh because of my expertise in Firearms I was made a Firearms instructor and then after 7 years 7 and a half years I got promoted a sergeant and put in charge of training in general um and that was um by Chief prisco um I was a sergeant for approximately nine years and at that time Chief Michael Lynch promoted me to Lieutenant and gave me broader administrative duties uh in addition to training um and then I was for five years I was Lieutenant um as a lieutenant I went to the FBI National Academy down in quanico Virginia um and then I became a lieutenant uh shortly before Chief Lynch retired and I was put in charge of besides Administration I was the public information officer uh I was the captain in charge of traffic and safety uh the detective Bureau and uh the office of Professional Standards so I I had a lot of responsibilities uh and then we went through the three Public Safety directors uh the first one was Mark dorsy uh a retired inspector from the Philadelphia Police Department who really he was an outstanding leader he was really really topn and then we went through two others um you know who weren't as good and and in fact the last one um you know they they paid his last8 or9 month salary to to stay home while they made me chief of police and the rest is history back then um um Lakewood is a it was a lot rougher town we had quite a few bars in town in fact one of my jobs as a foot patrolman was to uh babysit uh the bar at Main Street in Clifton Avenue which would stay open till 2:3 in the morning and we'd be there standing on the corner because there was fights and sometimes gunfire um almost every weekend um George's Bar and um you know it was a lot tougher place um not that it's any any picnic today we still have crime in Lakewood but not not the same as it was uh you know 35 years ago so um definitely it's changed that the nature of the crimes uh have changed um drug dealing um um there was a lot more drugs in town um there still are drugs in town um but it's it's predominantly among the gangs in Lakewood um and that that does spur violence on occasion whether you know people trying to rip it each other offer encroaching on each other's territory um and the drugs are responsible for Crime too you know robberies and burglaries for addicts trying to you know uh feed their feed their habit I think the the worst times in my career um especially as Chief was the death of two of my police officers um you know Bill nii uh presler U that occurred six months after I became Chief and um and also the uh the murder of Officer uh Chris Matos those hit me particularly hard um you know the police officers you think of everybody is a brother or or sister officer and uh you know we're a family and and when you have an officer who dies uh in the line of duty uh it's hard to take I I remember uh feeling upset is is an understatement I know we had counseling for the all all the officers from a professional psychologist who came in and I spoke to him in private because I I had a lot of uh a lot of trouble getting past that but you know given time um I did and you know you have to accept it and keep going on but as the chief you know you have to you have to be strong for everybody else so th those were definitely the low points of my career the shooting on M Court was another one where we had uh multiple officers injured um you know John Wilson um you know lost an eye there and you know he was a great officer and I was very sorry to see him go um Jason the foot another outstanding officer who got severely injured with a neck injury and ended up going out on a on a disability disability as well so uh th those were sort of low times in my career the High Times um I really look back on my my Outreach that I've done to the various communities in lwood um you know the Orthodox Community which is by far the largest community in Lakewood um you know I would go to a lot of the the the events um whether it be a hna Torah um I'm porum going around to U various events those were joyous times those I I really enjoyed um doing those type of things um so overall it's been such an interesting career because just the very nature of L but a lot of chiefa police a lot of police officers now are retiring in their late 4S or early 50s you know to me I've just LED this job so much because I found it so interesting um working with you know all the various ethnicities and and races and religions and L with I just I would keep doing it a lot longer if I could I guess this the scariest moments would be some of the arrest I made early on in my career um back then um some Pursuits as well um we the Pursuits weren't regulated by attorney G guidelines like they they are now and um I remember some particularly um hairy Pursuits where you know you would be going at at dram IC speeds which I would prohibit an officer from doing now but of course you know the township had only 30,000 people we have quadruple at least quadruple that now um I remember my my first felony uh arrest um I was on foot patrol generally but this one evening I was aside on overtime uh as motorized Patrol and there was an aggravated ass Soul where um an orthodox um Jewish person um um was assaulted and um they stole the religious artifacts he was carrying um and as as it turns out um it was a a relative um um the individual's name was burin and he's actually res related to uh chaplain burin and um I was able to make the arrest of the uh uh individual and the the woman that he was with that assaulted him and we recovered the religious belonging that he had with so that was like my first felony arrest in Lakewood and I I I felt really good that I was able to uh to help that individual and recover his property and and arrest the people for aggravated assault I've never had to shoot anybody um um I've never had a gun pull on me but I've had individual with with knives many times um draw my weapon pointed at people yes thankfully I've never had to discharge my my weapon I I found that one of your your biggest um assets is is is your is your your mouth you know to be able to talk to people and a lot of times just through talking to people you can deescalate things to the point where you know you you don't have a physical confrontation so no when I join we had probably about 80 people on the police department um I never expected Lakewood to have the growth rate that he that he did um you know I've lived in Lakewood I've owned a house in Lakewood since uh 1987 and um like I said I I I don't think anybody could have predicted the growth in Lakewood you know it's all spurred by um you know best medis Gava which is one of the crown jewels I guess in in the in in the Orthodox religion and and all the accompanied businesses to support the the faculty and the staff and the students graduate and they want to stay in Lakewood because it's a beautiful place to live I mean I don't want to live anywhere else I don't want to move out of Lakewood wow right now we have 125 officers and we're under staff there's no doubt about it I mean River has I believe close to around 160 officers and probably 20,000 less people if you look at the projections that um in the by the year 2030 we're going to have another 100,000 people in lwood it's hard for me to wrap my head around that because the infrastructure in Lakewood is not designed to handle the population we have now so um the police department has to keep up with that growth I mean the national average is two officers per thousand by that figure we should have 24 officers now you know obviously you know that would be a heavy tax burden for the taxpayers and I'm one of the biggest tax taxpayers in lquid but um I see us our our Police Department increasing dramatically to keep up with the needs of the population now the crime rate in lakid is not bad it's it's actually pretty good um you know we're we're a city but you know everybody thinks well the police all they do is fight crime and that's far from the truth we're really a service organization you know maybe maybe 15 20% of our time which is even a higher debt is spent fighting crime the rest is provide services to the community and um as as as Chief I've always stressed the the philosophy of community policing and doing whatever we can to to help all the communities in Lakewood and we've received heat from that from outside of Lakewood but I don't really care this is this is my town and and you know I think the police department should be responsive to the needs of the community well I'm not leaving the community you know I I I've lived in Lakewood for um um a long time um I I've been a resume of lward for 40 years um what I'll miss uh is the officers my my daily interactions with them uh my daily interactions with um um the other people who would come into my office whether be the civilians the police officers the business owners um like I said I I'll still be in Lakewood I'll still be the Emergency Management coordinator so I'll still be involved in local government um you know I I I have been offered um um a position um in the Lakewood community that I'm also considering and um so I'll still be around I'll still be involved you know I'm not one to sit at home and you know uh I love my wife but I don't think she want wants me home all the time either it's like get out and do something I think there's I think there's been a learning curve um not only for the police officers but for the the residents of of Lakewood too um you know I I know with some of the the the oldtimers um you know there's this this this feeling of of being in gullis you know uh uh and and and for maybe some of the newcomers you know uh they have to get the uh they understand thata you know I mean it goes It goes both ways um when when I first became Chief there was a lot of negative feelings toward uh the police officers for heavy-handed enforcement um and you know we we've tried to temper that and make the officers more Community minded but on the other hand we have to make the residents um cognizant of the fact that hey we have laws we have Motor Vehicle Laws and they're there for your protection for your safety whether it be cell phone violations or you know blowing through stop signs and you know parking on sidewalks you know I don't want this town to become you know another Brooklyn you know I I want you know everybody to um um you know civility you know to to to be courteous to to um drive courteously because that enhances everybody body's safety especially with the amount of traffic we have in town you know slow down a little bit respect the laws and and uh we have a beautiful community and we want everybody to be safe I'm looking forward to Stepping it down a notch I mean um until recently I would not uncommonly put in you know 60 hour work weeks um and and there is a lot of stress in this job you know you you you you Tred to neate that through um through your friends and your family and extracurricular activities you know I'm looking forward to going to the gym more um and maybe have a little more of of downtime in relaxing uh but that being said I still look forward to being involved in the community and and uh and helping my community however I can