Swearing in

Five months after a state investigation’s findings threatened to derail his promotion to chief, it appears that Warren Township police officer Robert Ferreiro has weathered the storm.

The Warren Township Committee has scheduled a special meeting for 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 1. The session’s agenda notes that Ferreiro’s promotion to chief is the first order of business.

The appointment resolution states that Ferreiro will earn a $220,000 salary along with his promotion. The agenda also lists additional promotions for police positions.

Ferreiro, a lieutenant, was selected by the committee as Warren’s next chief last October. He was scheduled to be sworn-in on New Year’s Eve, to succeed retiring Police Chief William Keane.

But in early December, the State Comptroller’s Office released a report of its probe into a 2021 conference held by the private law enforcement instruction firm Street Cop Training. That report criticized Street Cop for the unconstitutional tactics allegedly imparted at the conference and named some of the instructors, including Ferreiro.

Roughly 1,000 police officers from across the nation attended attended the conference, including about 250 from the Garden State.

Ferreiro had worked for Street Cop as a side gig for several years and had been a regular presence in promotional videos the firm posted on the internet.

At a December meeting held shortly after the report’s release, Warren committee members said they would postpone Ferreiro’s swearing in at his request, pending the results of an internal affairs probe involving the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office. On Dec. 20, the county prosecutor assumed control of the WTPD.

Warren officials largely refrained from commenting on the allegations against Ferreiro, even when asked by constituents at public meetings.

While the state report included unflattering content about Ferreiro, Warren committee members stayed squarely in his corner.

Last Dec. 11, only days after the state report’s release, Warren Township Mayor Victor Sordillo continued to advocate for Ferreiro as Warren’s next chief.

Sordillo asserted that he and colleagues had done a thorough review of Ferreiro’s records and a comprehensive interview. Ferreiro was selected from among four senior officers who applied for the chief’s position.

“He was clearly the best choice,” Sordillo wrote then in an email to Inside – Middlesex. “I expect the Township Committee will stay on schedule for his swearing in.” That ceremony, however, was postponed. Initially, committee members said it would be rescheduled for February. That date came and passed, with no swearing in and no public comment by Warren officials.

Several police departments throughout New Jersey have said publicly that they would retrain officers who attended Street Cop’s controversial 2021 conference.

An anonymous Open Public Records Act request into WTPD training records found that eight officers from that department – including  Ferreiro – had attended Street Cop Training seminars between 2018 and 2022.

That OPRA filing found that on at least one occasion, a WTPD officer attended a Street Cop seminar held at the Somerset County Police Academy. That course was held in November 2018. The academy is overseen by the county prosecutor’s office.

The prosecutor’s office did not respond to an email asking who had authorized Street Cop’s use of the county academy.

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