85 years of service

One officer has been promoted to lieutenant, another to sergeant in the Middlesex Police Department. The force is now at 32 officers, a far cry from its beginnings 85 years ago this week.

In February 1939, Middlesex was two decades old after separating from Piscataway Township. A system of marshals was used for law enforcement. Gurdon Fuller, who was one of the marshals, was appointed that month as the borough’s first police chief.

Current Police Chief Matt Geist noted the department’s anniversary at the Borough Council’s Tuesday, Feb. 13 meeting. That night, the department celebrated its latest promotions.

Sgt. James Dolinski was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, effective immediately. Dolinski, who joined the department in 2011, will serve as deputy patrol commander.

Officer Paul Steffanelli was promoted to the rank of sergeant, also effective immediately. Steffanelli joined the Middlesex force in 2014 and will serve as a squad supervisor in the patrol division.

The promotions, Geist said, “will enhance our operations.”

During the MPD’s 85-year history, there have been 49 sergeant promotions, Geist said, and 27 lieutenant promotions.

Geist saluted all past and current department officers, saying he knows “how hard the job is.”

In the bygone years of decades past, being an MPD officer was much different job, according to the department history posted on its website.

Fuller was named chief in 1939, and Frank Pasek Jr. was appointed as the department’s only patrolman. That same year, a used car was purchased as a patrol vehicle. A room in a building in the 700 block of Lincoln Boulevard served as police headquarters.

Three years later, Andrew Simpf was hired as a patrolman, increasing the department to three men. The department’s second-hand car had no two-way radio.

Instead, police officers would answer calls at headquarters and then respond to them. When no police officers were present there, calls were answered by a borough employee whose primary job was to monitor the River Road sewer pumping station. 

If the borough employee received a police call, he would turn on the pumping station’s porch light. When the officer on patrol passed the pumping station and saw the light on, he would stop to learn of the call’s details. The police officer on duty would patrol until 3 a.m. and then be “on call” at his home.

Through the ensuing decades, the MPD underwent many changed as did police work, in general. By 1962, the department had 15 officers. That same year, Fuller retired and he was succeeded by Simpf.

By 1972, the MPD had 30 officers. An in-house computer system was added in 1986. The department grew to 32 officers in 1992, a number that got whittled through attrition in ensuing years. The MPD recently reached that number of officers again with two new hires.

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