Lt. Sandy Bainbridge joined the Robbinsville police 27 years ago as the department’s first female officer. On Dec. 1, Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried named her acting police chief, following the retirement of former chief Martin Masseroni. Bainbridge, the daughter of Carol Sellers and the late John Sellers, grew up in Robbinsville and studied criminal justice at Trenton State College before joining the department in 1988. Her husband Rick, a captain with the Trenton Fire Department, was also raised in Robbinsville—the two were neighbors growing up on Meadowbrook Road. Today the couple lives on a farm in Chesterfield and has two daughters. Casey, 18, attends Longwood University in Virginia, and Taylor, 16, is a junior at Northern Burlington Regional High School. The Advance met with Bainbridge at police headquarters Dec. 18.
Robbinsville Advance: You were born and raised in Robbinsville. How have you seen the town change?
Sandy Bainbridge: When I grew up, if a car went down Meadowbrook Road, you stopped what you were doing and looked, because not many cars went down Meadowbrook Road. Now, it’s so built up. I call it the City of Robbinsville—which it’s not. It’s obviously suburban. I’m very much a farm girl, very much grew up with horses and animals. [Now] there’s an influx of people from everywhere. When I was a little girl, we knew everybody. Everybody in Robbinsville knew everybody. Now, it’s a mixture of people from all over, different states, different areas—which isn’t a bad thing. It’s just totally different from when I was younger.
RA: How has policing the town changed since you joined the department?
SB: It’s changed a lot. The amount of calls, the variety of calls. Back in the day, it was an ambulance call or a neighbor dispute. Now we get the whole gamut that any city department has, from the rural calls still, all the way to major crimes.
RA: How has the department itself changed since you joined?
SB: I was badge number 7 when I started. We’re now up to badge number 55. We have a lot more guys. We now have a mixture of everything and every personality. It’s actually kind of wonderful, because you get to know people and you have a big family. Everybody’s different—it’s not just a whole bunch of clones of one person. You have a mixture, and it’s really nice. We have a bunch of good guys. We’re kind of lucky that way.
RA: Did you expect to be chief?
SB: Never. When I made sergeant, I thought I was at the top of my career, and I was thrilled.
RA: Now that you’re acting chief, how have your duties changed?
SB: I feel a lot more responsible for everything going on, good and bad. I am trying to do little things, start little things. I’m changing the BDU uniforms, our tactical uniforms. I’m trying to be more in tune with every single aspect going on, not just my lieutenant responsibilities that I had before, which is daunting, because there’s a lot going on.
RA: Do people pop in at all hours to see you?
SB: No, it’s all pretty much stayed the same, which is good. We have a very good chain of command here. The patrolmen go to the sergeants, the sergeants go the the lieutenants, the lieutenants go to the chief. I am talking to the mayor a lot more than I used to.
RA: Are you being considered for the full-time position of chief?
SB: I think all three lieutenants are.
RA: What have you learned so far in your tenure as acting chief?
SB: I have learned that I have to have a very open communication line with the mayor. I guess I didn’t realize before the relationship between the chief of police and the mayor and business administrator. It’s a very open line of communication at all times.
RA: Throughout your career, are there any differences in things you’ve encountered as a woman that your male colleagues may not have?
SB: You know, I don’t think so. When I first started, men would follow me around like crazy, because they thought I wouldn’t be able to handle myself. After several calls, they started leaving me alone. I really feel that I’m no different from them, and they’re no different from me. I think that there are times when women can maybe talk and communicate a little better, which can help keep things from escalating. But there are a lot of men in our department now who are really good talkers. I think early on, I might have had an advantage with that, but through the years, we’ve gotten more and more guys, younger guys who are very chatty and know how to talk to people, and that’s great. I’d like to say that I have an edge because I’m a woman, but I don’t think so anymore. We’re all trained in the same fashion.
RA: What’s the biggest concern right now for the Robbinsville Police?
SB: The biggest concern is the perception of police today. We have a lot of good cops, and Mercer County has a lot of good cops, but one police officer from another state does something wrong, and it reflects poorly on all of us. That is a huge problem because there’s been a lot of lost respect for police. It’s a shame, because one bad apple does not spoil the whole bunch, but it seems that’s the way it’s been going. And there’s always the financial. You’d like to train guys more, you’d like to have better equipment, but finances kind of hold you back.
RA: What would you like to see the department accomplish?
SB: Chief Masseroni really brought this department up to a wonderful level. He did a lot…and he’s going to be hard to follow. The only thing that I think personally I would like to do is get our officers out more, maybe with senior citizens’ groups or kids’ groups. I’d like to have us give talks here and there, just show up and show kids that we’re good. They see bad stuff on TV, but I want to show them we’re just human and we’re good people.
RA: What are some of the initiatives the department is looking towards in the upcoming year?
SB: We’re changing the BDU uniforms…A BDU uniform is a tactical uniform. We wear it in inclement weather, we wear it for training, we wear it for special assignments. The new one is going to be a little more polished, a little more professional. And we’re trying to get the dispatchers into a better schedule. They’re currently working 12- and 14-hour days, so we’re trying to get them into a better routine. We’re trying to work on getting the guys more in-service training this year than we’ve ever had. It’s a cost-effective measure for us, and with the way the world is and the way people perceive police, we want to give our guys our best shot out there….We train yearly for school shootings, and we will continue to train that way. Detective Kevin Colgan runs felony motor vehicle stop training for our guys. We’ll continue with the in-service training and try to ramp it up this year.
RA: What’s your favorite thing about being a police officer?
SB: Every day is different. I see the seasons change. You’re out in the seasons. You see different people. You see the worst day of their life and you see the best day of their life. And you never, ever walk into the same day twice, which is great.
RA: What is your favorite thing about Robbinsville?
SB: As a police officer, it’s great community, a great police department. We love the community and the community seems to love us, which is a wonderful thing, because not a lot of communities have that. We get a lot of support from the community. It’s really good. I know in a lot of communities, people see the police and they walk the other way. We don’t have that here, which is great. From a personal standpoint, my sister lives here, my mother lives here, my mother-in-law lives here, my grandmother-in-law lives here. It’s home.
RA: Is there anything else you’d like to address?
SB: I want to say that I am extremely fortunate to be put in this position with the people that I have around me. If I need help, I have the two other lieutenants by my side. I have the sergeants that will do anything to help me or the lieutenants. I’m just fortunate. I have been handed a wonderful police department, not a fixer-upper. It’s the truth. And I want to thank the mayor for having faith in me.
,
