TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, N.J.—You know it’s the real deal when the Police Pipes and Drums of Bergen County start to play.
Police Chief Glenn Hooper, 65, took his final walk out from police headquarters on Oct. 31, leaving the department in care of Capt. Richard Skinner pending the hire of a permanent replacement.
The mayor’s committee looking into that replacement consists of Hooper, Public Safety Director and former WTPD Chief William Cicchetti, and Township Administrator Robert Tovo, himself a former chief of police, of the Borough of Mountain Lakes.
Up against a state rule that sets mandatory retirement for his position, Hooper, a nearly 43-year veteran of the force, told Pascack Press he feels strong physically and mentally and wanted at least a couple more years on the job.
He was promoted to chief in 2014, sworn in by former Police Chief Randy Ciocco. Before that, he served as a field training officer, firearms instructor, and executive officer.
Tovo said Hooper would receive an unused-time payout of $86,680. His final salary: $181,000.
Of leaving, Hooper said, “It’s hard. It’s bittersweet. I came here right out of college, when I was 22. I started June 1, 1977, as a patrolman. I made it farther than I ever thought I was going to go. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be chief. Sergeant—maybe. Lieutenant—maybe. But never chief.”
Attending his final walk-out at Town Hall was a crush of well-wishers: family; active and retired police officers; Paramus Police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg, with whom Hooper rose through the ranks; members of the Volunteer Fire Department, Volunteer Ambulance Corps, town Community Emergency Response Team, and Department of Municipal Facilities; other town workers; Mayor Peter Calamari; and Councilman Arthur Cumming.
At the brief ceremony, Skinner—who started on the WTPD 26 years ago alongside Detective John Calamari and Sgt. Roy Scherer—told Pascack Press Hooper’s first priority was “the health and welfare of the cops that worked with him.”
“He led by example, which we all think is very important. He was an all-around great guy who got up every morning and did the right thing. He was always the guy that looked out for his people,” Skinner said.
Detective Calamari added of the chief, “He’s been phenomenal. He cares about the department and the people in it. He’s all heart. Everyone felt safe with him, everyone knew he had their backs; he was a professional. You could truly count on the guy.”
He said, “He was on the job 17 years when I got hired, and here I am in my 26th year. It was great to see such a great guy move through the ranks. He’s just going to be missed.”
Retired officer Greg Hackbarth said of Hooper, “He was a cop’s chief and a resident’s chief, and he’ll be sorely missed.”
With Hooper’s departure the department consists of 19 officers and a Special Law Enforcement Officer II.
Hooper said he’ll miss them all, and lauded his command staff, patrol officers, and sergeants.
At his ceremony, he took in the moment. He said with emotion, “It means a lot to me. I don’t know where 43 years went… Thanks.”
At an interview in his office afterward, Hooper pointed out his walls, now bare off-white save for a bulletin board, of which he said, “That’s a mess but it can stay a mess.”
He explained his father, a U.S. Army Air Corps veteran of World War II and then an engineer with Bendix Corporation, had wanted him to be an airline pilot, and even gave him flying lessons. Glenn soled in a seaplane at 16, before he was old enough to drive.
But he wanted to be a police officer. “I know it sounds cliche but I enjoy helping people. Just giving something back to the community…” he said.
Hooper said he received job offers from the Washington Township and Hillsdale police departments on the same day. He chose his hometown.
His father, who died 10 years ago, was from Bellville. His mother, now in a nursing home, is from Paramus. The couple moved here in 1953. This was an up-and-coming community at the time. Their house was the last one on Woodfield Road, and that’s where they stayed.
Hooper is the oldest of three siblings. His sisters live in Colorado and Iowa.
He attended Washington School, the junior high in Westwood, and Westwood Regional High School. He graduated in 1973 and attended Bergen Community College.
He said there was much more open space then—there were orchid farms and horse farms where now there are bank buildings and the tennis club—and parents felt safe leaving their youngsters out all day to play.
He attributes his rise through the ranks to heeding his father’s advice.
“He said, Shut up, listen, and learn. And that’s what I did. I kept quiet. I listened to the older guys at that time, and I learned. And I taught myself a lot of things you didn’t get in the police academy, things like computers. I just fell into it,” he said.
Local problems 40 years ago amounted to youth hanging out at the lake and at stores, “just messing around and getting out of control—but that’s all gone by the wayside,” he said.
In his tenure, he said, the shopping center grew and townhouse sprang up. But the township retained its middle-class, working identity.
Hooper said his parents felt safe here. They used to lock the screen door, but that was it.
Now area parents are alert to dangers from “People that are not really upstanding.” Part of the problem, he said, is the effect of unwanted traffic coming in off Route 17 and the Garden State Parkway.
“You’ve got Linwood Avenue, you’ve got Van Emburgh Avenue. The parkway goes right though the middle of town. And you don’t get the nicest people coming off the parkway. That’s their easy way in and out of town,” he said.
Hooper said problems include burglaries and car thefts, fueled in part by the drug problem.
“Thank God it’s not violent. But it’s not only our town; it’s towns up and down Pascack Road and Van Emburgh. There are criminal activities. A lot of burglaries, and a lot of it’s related to drugs,” he said.
He said an ongoing challenge is educating the public not to leave their key fobs in their cars when not in use.
Residents call up, “Oh, my car is gone—the key fob was in the car in the glove box,” he said.
Hooper said thieves, some connected with criminal rings plaguing affluent Bergen County and elsewhere, “just go into the cars and start them and drive them away.”
Speeding remains a problem, particularly on Van Emburgh Avenue and Colonial Boulevard.
“It’s very hard to stop the speeding. We do the surveys and radar details. We have guys making stops all the time, but you can’t be everywhere 24 hours a day.”
He said he put in a request for funding for three or four portable radar signs that tell drivers they’re speeding or right on track.
Asked what he imagined his legacy would be—what mark he felt he left—he said, “Increasing the IT [information technology] for the department. More computers, computers in the cars, and modernizing.”
He said where in his patrol days an officer would have to call the desk sergeant with license plate information and this would be called in to the state police in Totowa, with results coming back in 10–15 minutes, now officers can get data back in seconds.
“It’s so much safer for the officers. With a tap now you now whether the car is stolen, the guy is wanted, his warrants… the information that comes back is lifesaving to the officer.”
He also is calling for the desk radio system to be replaced, which would mean a hefty bond. The system officers use now, installed in 1996, works but is no longer supported by the manufacturer, he said.
He’s also pleased that improvements at the station that the police union voiced as a priority in 2017 following a decade of woes were taken care of.
As for his next steps, he’s going to enjoy the holidays and sit back and collect his thoughts.
“After the first of the year I’ll evaluate where I am, look around, see what’s out there. We’ll see what happens. I’m in no rush,” he said.
Then he joined a Halloween celebration on Colonial Boulevard. His retirement party is Wednesday, Nov. 6 at Seasons.
