After a slew of recent retirements, the Plainsboro Police Department will see six new faces filling the highest positions in the department under chief — an unprecedented amount in the department’s 40-year history.
Chief Rick Furda has had his hands full over the past few months with the promotion process, but has come to a decision on his two new lieutenants: Troy Bell and Joseph Duffy.
Bell, who joined the Plainsboro Police in 1988, lives in Hamilton with his wife and two daughters, ages 10 and 12. Prior to his career as a police officer, Bell served in the United States Air Force.
He was hired by Plainsboro in 1998 and graduated from the police academy in 1989. Throughout his career, Bell has served in the Detective Bureau and was promoted to patrol sergeant in 2001. As a lieutenant, he is assigned to the patrol division.
Bell grew up in Hamilton. His mother is a retired library assistant with the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district, and his father is a retired fire chief at Fort Dix. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University and is working toward his master’s degree in administrative science, along with Duffy, at FDU.
Duffy, who joined the force in 1992, also grew up in Hamilton. His mother is a retired beautician, and his father is retired from the Trenton Fire Department. Duffy graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and served for two-and-a-half years in the Peace Corps in West Africa.
He graduated from the Somerset County police academy and was hired by Plainsboro in 1992. He has worked with the detective bureau and supervised the community policing unit.
Duffy lives with his wife and four children in North Hanover. Along with Bell, he is working toward his master’s degree in administrative science at FDU.
When former chief Elizabeth Bondurant retired last year, “it created a void because my position as lieutenant wasn’t filled,” said Furda. “Chris Weidman retired at the end of July. That created the need for six promotions — two at each level.”
So, in addition to the department’s two newest lieutenants, Furda says he must promote two officers to the sergeant roles and two officers to the corporal roles. Furda says he just recently finished the interview process for the corporal positions. Now the four officers Furda has chosen for those positions will be undergoing psychological evaluations.
Furda says that it is standard police procedure that officers under psychological evaluations every four years. And “when we do promotions, we send them because they test for leadership personalities,” he added.
Until that process is finished, Furda cannot release their names, he said. He did say that he will be looking to make the announcement and swear them in during the week of Monday, August 17.
“This is unprecedented for us,” said Furda. “Six promotions at once — the process was tough. The officers were challenged by some difficult scenarios. The ones who got promoted came out on top in the process.”
In addition to the six promotions, the township has had to hire a slew of new patrol officers to fill in the remaining holes caused by the promotions. Its newest patrol officers, Martin McElrath and Thomas Larity, were formally sworn in during the Township Committee’s meeting on August 12.
McElrath, 22, a resident of West Long Branch, has a bachelor’s in criminal justice from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. He has served in the Marine Corps.
Larity, 23, is a resident of Toms River. He holds an associate’s degree in criminal justice and is pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Thomas Edison State College.
“We have a lot of guys who are super active and getting out there and doing a lot of enforcements,” said Duffy. “I think Lieutenant Bell and I are both really eager in looking forward to the challenges. We do have a lot of young guys, but it’s a really active unit.”
Bell echoed the sentiment. “I’m going to miss being out there on the streets every day, but I do look forward to the new jobs the position brings.”
