For the three newest members of the West Windsor Police Department, this month marks the conlusion of one learning process and the immediate commencement of another.
The three new patrol officers, Alison Pollini of Plainsboro and Megan Erkoboni and Eric Woodrow, both from Hamilton, will fill the openings that followed the retirements of lieutenants Patrick O’Brien, Patrick McCormick, and Brian Melnick (The News, October 10). Their addition brings the West Windsor PD back up to 47 officers, which has been the staff level since 1998.
They graduated February 13 from the Mercer County Police Academy, and after five months of intensive studying and training they are excited to begin police work. But there is also a tinge of anxiety as they transition to patrols and responding to actual calls. All three realize the next phase is a type of education gained only through experience.
“I feel like I’ll be starting over again. Before academy we were asking ‘what’s it going to be like?’ It’s the same way now,” Pollini says. “I know there will be that learning curve, I know what I know and I know what I don’t know. I want to make sure I can be as on point as I can. I’m ready to learn, to be infused, there’s a tremendous amount of pride in the department.”
As Woodrow says: “I’ve learned a lot, at the same time, I have a lot more learning to do.”
The three officers have already started their field training program, part of which involves supervised patrols alongside an experienced officer. Before entering the academy, the new recruits shadowed officers. During academy, Sergeant Brian Geraghty oversaw their progress and prepped them on their transition. Geraghty also heads the field training program. The new officers will begin their own patrols in a few months.
Erkoboni and Woodrow, both in their mid-20s, and Pollini, 31, each joined law enforcement after professional stints in unrelated fields.
Pollini was heavily involved in rowing prior to becoming an officer. She was born in Rhode Island and moved to Alabama when she was 11. Her father is a pharmacist and her mother is a school secretary, and they recently moved to nearby Monroe. Pollini studied music education at the University of Alabama and was a member of the crew team. She would coach the Alabama men’s crew team the next four years after graduating, also working as a manager at FedEx, before moving to central New Jersey in 2010 to work in the membership department of USRowing. She continues to coach crew, leading the club team at the College of New Jersey.
Woodrow also comes from an athletic background. His father works at AT&T as a senior technical director and his mother is a nurse. He studied history and secondary education at Rider after graduating from Hamilton West, and he was a starting catcher for Rider’s division one baseball team. He worked as a graduate assistant at TCNJ while studying for a masters in educational leadership, also serving as an assistant baseball coach at TCNJ and later at Rider.
Erkoboni graduated from Hamilton West in 2007, a year after Woodrow. Her father is self-employed and her mother is also a nurse, and she studied English and Italian studies at Bucknell. She worked for four years in Manhattan in nonprofit education management before joining the West Windsor PD. Erkoboni was chosen by her academy class to deliver the graduation speech. She also won the academy’s physical fitness award.
Having selected recruits with no law enforcement background, WWPD was clearly not seeking to simply recruit criminal justice majors. Each one will be the first police officer in the family, and each made their career decision after several years of self-evaluation in the working world.
“I started out working in a very polished, business minded atmosphere. I think becoming a police officer is something that as you learn more about yourself, you feel it’s a calling,” Erkoboni says. “I always had a passion to help people. I see a lot of it from my mom, helping people in all sorts of situations.”
For Pollini, the duty of being a police officer combines aspects of education and discipline that paralleled her experience teaching music and coaching crew. Relatives who work in homeland security gave her feedback, telling her she is proactive and how that would translate well in the military. Listening to her friend who is a cop in Alabama describe her lifestyle, Pollini remembers thinking “that’s the missing piece.”
“It kind of fits my lifestyle. I enjoy coaching and teaching, helping people become more self-aware,” Pollini says. “It found me later than most people, it was a bug in my head.”
Their transition from civilian to police officer took place during a period of increased nationwide public scrutiny in response to recent events in Ferguson and New York City.
All three were critical of the media portrayal, which they felt at times was sensational or uninformed, as well as the anti-police rhetoric. “I don’t think people realize how big officer safety is, how many unknowns there are,” Erkoboni says. “Police officer safety is not guaranteed.”
The academy was careful not to give exact answers on how to respond to scenarios, instead emphasizing the different elements officers must evaluate in a case by case judgment call, such as the law, one’s duties, and safety and tactical considerations.
Their training did emphasize officer safety as a top priority: the goal is to return home every day.
The most challenging aspect of training that Woodrow encountered is reconciling duty and personal safety.
“For me, it is trying to find a balance between being a police officer with a role as an authority to enforce the law and personal safety, balancing that and being a compassionate, sympathetic public servant,” Woodrow says.
Adds Erkoboni: “While we don’t have the experience yet I think what the academy gives you is a factual basis. You really learn how to think through things.”
Of course, West Windsor is far different than Ferguson or New York, and the WWPD has good relations with the community. But any potential changes to law enforcement in response to current events may affect West Windsor. One example the new officers mentioned was the nationwide dicussion of equipping officers with body cameras.
The additions of Pollini and Erkoboni will also increase the number of women officers in the department from two to four. Sergeant Marylouise Tarr, who heads the traffic bureau, and patrol officer Melissa Nagy are the other women officers.
Pollini and Erkoboni are both aware of the numbers of course, but it does not seem to faze them.
“I knew going into it, it’s a male-dominated field. Crew is also male dominated,” Pollini says. “Sometimes it’s a challenge, just to prove you’re just as capable. I’m aware of the situation but it does not affect me.”
Adds Erkoboni: “When you’re confident enough in what you’re doing, it’s not an obstacle.”
The new officers took their oath February 17, as did six promoted officers. Lee Evans and Thomas Moody were promoted to patrol lieutenant, and Matthew Kemp was promoted to investigative lieutenant. Jeffery Lai, Michael McMahon, and Stephen Skwierawksi were promoted to patrol sergeant.
