HACKENSACK—Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella, in partnership with local and federal law enforcement agencies, announces the recent implementation of the newly formed Bergen County Crime Suppression Team. This initiative was a special, directed patrol and investigative response task force that was assembled at the start of the recent holiday season. As a collaborative effort of combined resources from the Prosecutor’s Office, municipal police departments, and federal law enforcement, the Crime Suppression Team aimed to enhance public safety throughout the county during a particularly busy time of year.
A new endeavor, the Crime Suppression Team was a purposeful deployment of additional law enforcement officers to strategic sections of Bergen County on a rolling basis throughout the month of December. The Crime Suppression Team sought to deter, disrupt, and detect criminal activity by focusing on the times of day when crimes of opportunity were likely to occur. Upwards of 70 officers and detectives of various ranks from 21 agencies across Bergen County, as well as Prosecutor’s Office detectives and special agents from Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), all participated in this effort. The diverse team, under the direction of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, was an ad hoc multi-jurisdictional and multi-disciplinary task force. The primary objective of the team was to patrol residential neighborhoods, shopping centers, and municipal business districts, while engaging with residents or visitors in order to enhance holiday safety.
Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said in a Jan. 8 press release shared with Pascack Press, “We are grateful for the overwhelming support we have received from our law enforcement partners in this endeavor. As we set out to surge areas where crimes of opportunity could occur, this latest collaborative effort has demonstrated the power of working together to protect our residents and visitors, and the value of intelligence-led, data-driven policing. More than that, this special detail provided a sense of security by having officers be visible in our communities and by using a full complement of both plainclothes and uniformed police officers.”
Chief of Detectives Matthew Finck explained, “The Crime Suppression Team was a new project that aimed to deter criminal activity while providing reassurance to the public that our dedicated police officers are on the watch, some in marked police cars and some in unmarked cars, protecting our neighborhoods during a time of year when enhancing public safety is crucial. Whether our residents were shopping in a strip mall or staying home this past holiday season, the men and women of Bergen County’s various law enforcement agencies were proactively working to keep our communities safe by being visible and vigilant. This team will surely be activated again in the future.”
During 10 deployments that were scheduled on both weekdays and weekends in the month of December between the hours of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., the Crime Suppression Team’s plainclothes task force officers visited more than 25 municipal shopping districts and countless residential neighborhoods. The special task force spent a portion of each shift focusing on local shopping districts, including for example, the business areas of Cliffside Park, Closter, Edgewater, Emerson, Fort Lee, Glen Rock, Hillsdale, Mahwah, Maywood, Montvale, Ramsey, and Ridgewood, to name just a few. It should be noted that the Bergen County Rapid Deployment Team, a separate strategic force of uniformed Prosecutor’s Office detectives and uniformed municipal law enforcement officers, was also proactively deployed at the major malls of Bergen County during the holiday season, which is an annual initiative apart from the newly formed Crime Suppression Team.
Deputy Chief of Detectives Jeff Angermeyer added, “By engaging for the first time with these unique directed patrols of perceived high-risk or vulnerable areas, the Crime Suppression Team added dozens of additional officers during a busy time of year – and not just at the largest malls in the county, which tend to have a full police presence already.”
He continued, “By marshaling our shared resources and surging neighborhoods, a portion of the Crime Suppression Team had the ability to focus on the small and medium-sized business areas, the local ‘downtown’ storefronts, and, of course, the strip malls across Bergen County. The other portion of the team saturated residential side streets, patrolling for unusual activity and suspicious behaviors with special attention for package theft and burglary patterns.”
During the month of December, the Crime Suppression Team conducted numerous investigations into suspicious activities that were either reported or observed during proactive patrols. Moreover, the Team supplemented multiple emergency response requests from municipal police departments. During the deployments, the Crime Suppression Team made several arrests including, for example, three separate warrant arrests for unrelated fugitives who were proactively located or detected while task force officers were on patrol in the county. One such fugitive was wanted by the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) for armed robbery.
More specifically, on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, members of the Bergen County Crime Suppression Team identified 51-year-old RANDOLPH R. SMITH of Far Rockaway, NY who was wanted in connection with an armed robbery that occurred in New York City. SMITH was spotted in the Ramsey area, and when confronted by the Crime Suppression Team, he provided a false name to investigators. He was subsequently taken into custody without incident and charged with third-degree possession of a false government document and hindering apprehension, a disorderly person’s offense. SMITH was lodged in the Bergen County Jail pending extradition back to the state of New York. Prosecutor Musella states that the charges are merely accusations, and that the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Prosecutor Mark Musella thanks the 21 local police departments and their respective police chiefs who provided manpower to the Bergen County Crime Suppression Team. Their combined efforts to enhance public safety during the holiday season were at the center of this project. Without their commitment and partnership, the Bergen County Crime Suppression initiative would not have come to fruition.
The following 21 agencies participated in the Bergen County Crime Suppression Team and provided the manpower necessary for the detail to take place during the holiday season:
- Cliffside Park Police Department
- Closter Police Department
- Dumont Police Department
- Emerson Police Department
- Fort Lee Police Department
- Glen Rock Police Department
- Hackensack Police Department
- Haworth Police Department
- Hillsdale Police Department
- Little Ferry Police Department
- Mahwah Police Department
- Maywood Police Department
- New Milford Police Department
- North Arlington Police Department
- Norwood Police Department
- Palisades Park Police Department
- River Vale Police Department
- Rochelle Park Police Department
- Saddle River Police Department
- Upper Saddle River Police Department
- Wallington Police Department
In addition, Prosecutor Musella thanks and recognizes the Bergen County Police Chiefs Association for their ongoing partnership, as well as the men and women of federal law enforcement, who also supported the Bergen County Crime Suppression Team.
Specifically, Prosecutor Musella thanks the ATF Newark Field Division and the FBI Newark Field Office for providing manpower to this new initiative. Finally, Musella thanks and recognizes the local police departments that provided particular support during certain proactive patrols, including the Bergenfield Police Department, Cliffside Park Police Department, Hackensack Police Department, and Ramsey Police Department.
Stay tuned as we follow up with additional reporting to provide a deeper look into the outcomes and implications of this collaborative effort