Dancing with the Chief

In 2009, the Chief of Police in Ocean City, Maryland, won the "Dancing with the Delmarva Stars" charity fundraising event, besting 12 other contestants.

If you look at the photo and think that the Chief looks sharp in his black outfit with the white necktie, you’ll be wrong. The gentleman is Bill Goschen, but the Chief is Bernadette DiPino, the woman on the left.

"Delmarva," in case you do not know, refers the peninsula on which the resort town of Ocean City is located. The three states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia share that peninsula.

Ocean City has a year-round population of just 7,200, but over the course of a year more than eight million tourists visit the town.

But Chief DiPino has recently taken on a task that is sure to be more challenging than either dancing in competition or being Chief of Ocean City. On January first of this year she took over as Chief of the Sarasota, Florida, police department. Sarasota is also a vacation destination, but it has a year-round population more than seven times greater than Ocean City. It’s a sprawling 25-square mile city.

Sarasota city officials have high hopes for Chief DiPino, an outsider hired to take over a department that in recent years has suffered from the fiscal squeeze and citizen complaints.

Chief DiPino is part of a family of police. Her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all served, and her daughter is an officer in Maryland today. Five generations!

Jersey Boys

The news today of the passing of General Norman Schwarzkopf reminds us of a fact familiar to most of New Jersey’s law enforcement community, but less well known among the general public: General Schwarzkopf’s father, Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr., was the founder and first superintendent of the New Jersey State Police.

General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.















Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr.












General Schwarzkopf was best known for his role in the original Gulf War, repelling Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait in 1991. But at the time of General Schwarzkopf's birth in 1934, his father was leading the investigation into the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s infant son, the infamous "Lindbergh Baby" case.

The Lindbergh case drew national attention, culminating in a raucous trial at the Hunterdon County Courthouse in Flemington and leading to the execution of Bruno Richard Hauptmann in 1936.

Both father and son Schwarzkopf were Jersey boys, the father having been born in Newark and the son in Trenton.

Holiday Schedule

The Badge Company of New Jersey will be OPEN on Christmas Eve, December 24, but closed on Christmas Day, December 25.  We will then be open the rest of the week, December 26-27-28.

We will be closed on both New Year's Eve, December 31, and New Year's Day, January 1.  We open for 2013 -- our 40th year! -- on January 2.

Best Wishes to all our customers, friends, and families.

What’s That White Stuff? Part II

It has happened again.

In 2010 we blogged about a burglar in South Carolina, where snowfall is not very common, being captured because authorities simply followed his footprints in the snow.

Here in New Jersey, where the season’s first snowstorm has already occurred, earlier this week police arrived at a home after the resident reported that someone had just tried to break into the house by smashing a rear door window.

Officers were told the man had knocked on the front door of the home, and when no one answered, he went to the rear. But the crook fled when the homeowner yelled, according to police.

The officers followed footprints in the freshly fallen snow and found the 26-year-old genius a short distance away, in possession of a hammer.

Challenging Circumstances

Berkeley Township, New Jersey, encompasses some of the areas hardest-hit by Hurricane Sandy, including both oceanfront and inland areas devastated by the storm. Dealing with a natural disaster of this scope is a challenge for any police agency.

In this photograph, Berkeley Township Police Chief Karin DiMichele uses the p.a. system in a police vehicle to address residents last week, residents who are gathered to obtain passes to go to their property to inspect damage and collect possessions. Yes, as of this writing the portions of Berkeley Township that are on the Island Beach barrier island remain off-limits to residents and property owners, and access is being carefully controlled. There is no electric service, the natural gas service has been turned off pending repairs to damaged gas mains, and roads are damaged and/or blocked by debris.

We know – we have family who are year-round residents of the area, now displaced to a rental property elsewhere.

Photo courtesy of David Gard/The Star-Ledger

Hurricane Sandy Updates

November 5, 2012:  Our power and our telephones are restored, and we are now operating in a generally normal fashion.  We are getting caught up on shipments and order processing from last week, and we appreciate everyone's patience and understanding.

We have learned that the New Jersey League of Municipalities' conference has been canceled.  This conference, the 97th annual confab for mayors and municipal employees, was scheduled for next week in Atlantic City, and we have been an exhibitor there for decades.  But with so many towns reeling from the effects of the storm, including Atlantic City itself, the League made the right decision.  We'll see you all there next year.

November 1, 2012:  Due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy, we have been operating on generator power, our telephone service is out, cell phone service is spotty, and internet access comes and goes.  At the moment, it appears that the best way to reach us is via e-mail because we have been able to retrieve e-mail messages via the smartphone.  Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Great Gift Idea!