‘We can’t say anything’

Three weeks before the envisioned, rescheduled swearing-in date of the Warren Township Police Department’s new chief, officials would offer no comment on a takeover of the force by the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office.

County Prosecutor John P. McDonald sent a letter to Warren officials on Dec. 20, notifying them of the takeover. The correspondence did not state a reason for the move.

It appears there will be no official public statement on the situation from Warren Township due to legal reasons. Meanwhile, there has been no further mention of a possible swearing in of WTPD Lt. Robert Ferreiro as chief on Feb. 15 as was stated in mid-December.

Warren Mayor Victor Sordillo was asked by a resident about the lack of an official statement on the police takeover during the Township Committee’s Thursday, Jan. 25 meeting.

“We had developed a statement and we were told by legal counsel we could not…we had it written and we could not release it” said Sordillo. He appeared to be referring to former Township Attorney Jeff Lehrer who retired as of year-end 2023.

Ferreiro was selected by the Township Committee in October to be Warren’s next police chief, succeeding William Keane who retired as of Dec. 31, 2023. Ferreiro’s swearing-in had been planned for that date.

The oath-taking got derailed, however, by the Dec. 6 release of a State Comptroller Office’s report on Street Cop Training’s October 2021 conference in Atlantic City. That report faulted the private law enforcement training firm for the tactics imparted by some instructors at the conference, alleging they were unconstitutional, discriminatory and misogynistic.

Ferreiro, who apparently worked for Street Cop Training as a side job, was among multiple conference instructors named in the report. The comptroller has contended the faulty instruction will cost taxpayers due to the need to retrain police and potential related litigation.

A packed room of Ferreiro supporters attended the committee’s Dec. 14 meeting, vouching for his character. Committee members said the swearing-in was being deferred – not cancelled – at Ferreiro’s request due to a pending internal affairs investigation. The new date for the oath-taking was given as Feb. 15.

Since then, however, there’s been no public mention of a swearing-in taking place on that date. Sordillo made no reference to it while speaking of the withheld public statement at this week’s meeting.

Although Warren officials have not released an official statement on the takeover, Sordillo responded in a Dec. 26 email to questions from Inside – Middlesex.

“I understand that the direction to oversee the department came from the Attorney General,” Sordillo wrote of the county prosecutor. “They will stay until the investigation into the Atlantic City ‘Street Cop’ training is completed.” 

Sordillo said then that the prosecutor’s oversight was spurred by the Township Committee’s October selection of Ferreiro as Warren’s next police chief.

“It was due to our choice as the new chief was an instructor,” Sordillo wrote of the takeover. “We will hold off with the appointment until the investigation is finished.” 

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