Thank You Police Chief Powell for 25 Years of Service
Chief Darren Powell has spent 25 years of his career serving the Hillsborough community in the police department. He has been the police chief for almost four of those years, and will be retiring from the position at the end of July.
Reflecting on his years in the department, Powell said that being a police department is a team sport. The Hillsborough Police Department has 54 officers and nine civilian employees. “I think I’ve done a lot to help build and contribute to a community atmosphere. Our police department is very cohesive,” he said.
Powell said Hillsborough does not have a lot of random violent crime - most crime incidents are property crimes, both residential and vehicular. According to Powell, preventative actions people can take against property crimes are to be diligent about locking their doors, strategically landscaping and lighting their homes and looking into alarm systems. He also said to lock vehicles and not to keep valuables in them.
Powell acknowledged that Hillsborough is experiencing problems from the opioid epidemic, with a number of fatal heroin overdoses. He said it’s a problem here, but it is just as much of a problem in other towns. “I don’t think there's a problem in the Hillsborough schools any more than in the schools in the surrounding area,” said Powell.
Crime scenarios that keep Chief Powell up at night are tragic active shooter incidents. He said they’re hard to prevent, but Hillsborough police officers are trained for them. He said Hillsborough is not any more vulnerable to them and they can happen anywhere.
Powell has a long background with motor vehicle incidents and believes it’s a huge responsibility for police to address these accidents and the injuries people sustain from them the best way they can. The police department is always trying to improve Hillsborough, said Powell. An example he gave was the protected left arrows at the intersection of Triangle Road and Auten Road.
He said one thing he was proud of accomplishing during his time as Chief is the transition of our dispatching capability to Somerset County Communication .“We used to have our own dispatchers and in 2018 we migrated from in house dispatchers to somerset county communications,” he said. “As it turned out, our transition went smoothly. In my opinion it was a benefit. In the long run, it’s saving the town money.”
Powell grew up in Wharton, New Jersey in Morris County. He graduated from the County College of Morris, served in the army for three years and in the navy for four and a half years.
Before he was the Chief of Police, Powell worked in many of the other areas of the police department. He started his career in 1994 in the patrol division. He was a member of the division for two years.
From there, he moved to the traffic safety bureau where he focused on traffic enforcement, education and MVA accident investigation. Looking back, Powell said he is actually known best for his experience in accident investigation and traffic safety matters.
Moving through various job positions, Powell was a member of the Somerset County collision analysis and reconstruction team (CART), was promoted to patrol corporal and was the road supervisor for a patrol squad. He has been a traffic safety sergeant, a shift commander and promoted to one of four lieutenants in the department. After spending 21 years in the department, he was eventually promoted to Chief of Police in 2015.
Powell currently lives in Raritan Township with his wife and two daughters. After retiring, Powell said he plans on going back to the workforce full time.
Starting on August 1, 2019, Mike McMahon will be the new Chief of Police.
Powell’s advice for the new chief is first to try to cooperate with the other departments in the township and the schools. “Try to be as engaging as time and manpower permits with the community. Try to maintain and build relationships with the community, Board of Ed and other departments,” he said.
He also said to provide adequate training for officers and that maintaining a high level of training is crucial. “Having a very structured internal affairs process, being consistent, fair, and respectful to the community should be consistent across the board,” he said as his last piece of advice.
We thank you for your service to Hillsborough, Police Chief Darren Powell!