Patrick O’Brien moved to West Windsor in 1998, nine years after joining the township police as a patrol officer at the age of 23. He is one of three 25-year officers who have recently retired from the police department (see separate story, page 14).
O’Brien says he only stayed retired for eight to ten hours before beginning chapter two of his career. He plans to start his own business, O’Brien Small Home Repair, and keep busy with home improvement and remodeling for the next 15 to 20 years.
“I loved being a police officer the moment I started. It wasn’t easy retiring from a job I still loved,” O’Brien says. “I thrived in that environment. Those tough days were the same days that I couldn’t do without. There are some days I miss that stress.”
Even so, as a married man with four children O’Brien says retiring from law enforcement allows him to focus on being the coach, and having more quality time with his family.
“As a result of the time I put into my career, an awful lot of stuff with my wife and kids was put on hold,” O’Brien says. That is not to say O’Brien’s job prevented him from being involved with his four children. In addition to coaching “every sport there is,” O’Brien was a DARE teacher at Village Elementary and has volunteered for events at Maurice Hawk and Dutch Neck elementary schools. O’Brien is also a former Youth Group leader at his church, Dutch Neck Presbyterian on South Mill Road.
His wife, Jill, is a homemaker, and an immediate task for the O’Brien family is navigating the college recruitment process with their son Sean, a senior at High School South seeking to continue playing baseball at the collegiate level. O’Brien also has a daughter, Erin, who attends South, and two younger sons still in elementary school, Danny and Brody.
Family was also what introduced O’Brien into a career in law enforcement. His grandfather, Darby O’Brien, retired in the 1960s from the Trenton police. Cousin Kevin is an FBI agent in Virginia, and various in-laws have worked for the New Jersey State Police.
Law enforcement is “almost a family tradition if you will,” O’Brien says. “It was an occupation that was strongly respected and endeared in my family.”
O’Brien graduated from Ewing High School in 1984. His father is a retired Bell Telephone executive and his mother worked as a nurse at Mercer Medical Center.
After graduating from high school, O’Brien took college classes and worked various jobs before he was hired as a patrol officer in August, 1989.
“I realized I made a smart decision very early in my job,” O’Brien says.”You were seen as a community leader, as a problem solver, it was a good way of making a living.”
In 1994 O’Brien’s duties expanded to include working as part of the police department’s community policing program. He became a senior patrol officer in 1998, and starting in 2005 he worked as a detective investigating both adult and juvenile cases. O’Brien was promoted to patrol sergeant in 2007, and patrol lieutenant in 2012.
“Problem solving” is the phrase O’Brien uses to describe the essence of police work, which heavily involves the ability to work with people in a range of complex situations. O’Brien says experiences such as walking into a home where there is chaos really pushes police officers to become problem solvers on a whole different level.
O’Brien attributes part of his effectiveness to his personal traits.
“I’m what’s commonly referred to as an alpha personality,” O’Brien says.”I’ve always been very outgoing. You certainly need [one] to cope and deal with people in varying levels of situations. A core responsibility of a police officer is to be a problem solver.”
Staying positive is also important, with O’Brien describing himself as “an eternal optimist.” “I’m supervising 27 square miles, inclement weather hits and half the lights are out. You have to answer calls, be there for residents,” O’Brien says. “No matter how bad it gets, you learn to be optimistic.”
Five years into the job, O’Brien suffered an injury while on duty that nearly ended his career. On November 29, 1994, while trying to apprehend a group of Trenton kids who stole a car, he was struck by the car at 70 miles per hour on Route 1. His right leg was nearly torn off, and his back and head were split open.
“I got all busted up,” O’Brien says. “It took 14 months to get bolted back together.”
O’Brien is glad he stayed on at West Windsor after what he describes as “a very traumatic accident.” From when he was first hired at the age of 23 to retirement at age 48, O’Brien says he has seen many traumatic things.
“These experiences shape who you become. I lost track of the hundreds of people that I have seen passed away,” O’Brien says. “That changes how I view death, but you are still expected to be a normal member of society. It’s a very dynamic job where you have to dance on marbles. There were an awful lot of mental challenges, especially in a leadership role. There are no black and white, yes or no answers. There’s definitely a lot of gray.”
There were positive experiences as well. O’Brien recalls delivering a baby in the front seat of a Toyota, and helping save an 18-year-old girl’s life from a car accident. Both those experiences happened more than 20 years ago, but they remind O’Brien of the police officer’s core duty as a problem solver.
Problem solving is not ultimately an individual endeavor, either. There is the care, mutual support, and collaboration between colleagues.
“It was a brotherhood. No matter how tough things got you always got things done together. The team effort is something the job has taught me an awful lot about,” O’Brien says. “Very early on when you attend a police academy, they stress to you police work is something you don’t do alone, you do as a group.”
In addition to support from the “very unique brotherhood,” O’Brien also praises the cooperative approach of the West Windsor township and its residents.
“So often you see the Ewings and Trentons; [those police departments] didn’t have the financial backing,” O’Brien says. “I think one of the most rewarding things is being able to give back. Our police department had the success it had because of the support we had from the community. Groups in town supported us. Town council supported equipment. Everybody supported the police department’s success.”
For new officers, O’Brien advises them to document their experiences. “I tell them to write a book. The moment you walk in the door, you should start writing,” says O’Brien. “The career, it’s unbelievable what you get exposed to. I’ve also seen it shape them in not so positive ways. It’s a good way to vent the experiences. I wish I had, when I sit down to reflect on things in the past 25 years.”
