Parade celebrates 125 years of police service

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CRANFORD, NJ — A little rain proved no obstacle at all for Cranford Police Department, when it celebrated 125 years of service with an anniversary parade on Sunday, Oct. 23. Kicking off at 12:30 p.m., this “driving parade” consisted of emergency vehicles and specialized equipment from local, county, state and federal agencies. The parade route started at Union College and traveled southbound on Springfield Avenue toward downtown Cranford, then turned right onto North Union Avenue, across North Avenue and left into the Walnut Avenue entrance to the train station parking lot, Municipal Lot No. 4.

“It was a wonderful day,” said Detective Lt. Matthew Nazzaro in an interview with Union County LocalSource on Sunday, Oct. 23. “There was a little drizzle, but it didn’t discourage our residents from coming out, and we thank them for this. People came out to support us. It was a wonderful display to support us along both roadways, Springfield Avenue and North Union Avenue in downtown Cranford. There were 30 to 40 vehicles represented in the parade.”

A portion of the parade route was designated as a sensory-friendly zone, with no sirens or horns being used by the participating agencies.

“The parade committee has been involved for about 10 months, planning events during our milestone event, 125 years,” Nazzaro said. “The parade was an opportunity for us to engage with our community and thank them for their support.

“We had every municipality in Union County represented, as well as state police, county police, Kean University police and the Cranford Police Department. Every member came out to showcase all of our different equipment and our specialities. … Every member of our 53-person department was there.

“There was no interruption of services,” Nazzaro added. “We ensured there was adequate response at all times.”

An accredited law enforcement agency since 2006, the 53-officer, highly specialized municipal police agency consists of a Patrol Division, Investigative Division, Community Support Services Division, Training Division, Detective Bureau, Juvenile Bureau, Traffic Bureau, Records Bureau and Community Outreach Unit. In addition to their daily responsibilities, officers serve on teams within the organization, including the Crisis Intervention Team, Water Rescue Team, Mobile Command Unit, Special Operations Team, Firearms Qualifications Unit, Honor Guard Unit, Domestic Violence Liaison, Accreditation Team and Internal Affairs Unit. In September, the Cranford Police Department submitted for reaccreditation recognition from the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, confirming the organization’s dedication to optimal law enforcement professionalism.

“We had full support of our entire Township Committee and mayor,” said Nazzaro, “as well as our Union County Board of (County) Commissioners with Bette Jane Kowalski, who is a resident of Cranford. Both our mayor, Kathleen Miller Prunty, and Bette Jane Kowalski were there to offer proclamations to celebrate the day. And our grand marshal was Harry Wilde. The Township Committee and police department renamed the entrance to the police department in his name, Harry Wilde Way, because he was a transformational leader for our organization through 2003, when he retired.”

Wilde served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1959 to 1963 and joined the Cranford Police Department in 1963. During the course of his 40-year career, he served as an adjunct faculty member at Union College, then Union County College; served on the college’s board of governors; served as executive officer of the Union County Narcotics Strike Force; and was a past recipient of the Clergy Council of Cranford’s Martin Luther King Jr. Award. Wilde was directly responsible for developing the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police’s Command & Leadership Academy in 1993; the 16-week, part-time program has been attended by many law enforcement professionals from throughout New Jersey.

“Harry was a transformational leader in a very turbulent time in law enforcement,” said Nazzaro. “He knew that when he took over as chief in 1991 and wanted to ready our organization for the 21st century in policing.”

The Cranford Police Department has been commemorating its 125th anniversary all year.

“Throughout this entire year, we’ve had different events in honor of this celebratory year, this being the most prominent one for the community,” said Nazzaro. “We’ve created a challenge coin. It’s a cool tradition in military and law enforcement for an organization to have a collectible memento, like a coin. We did a memorial walkway in front of our headquarters, where residents and businesses could buy a memorial brick engraved with the patch of the Cranford Police Department with whatever they wanted to say, supporting a particular police officer or the entire police department.”

“And then we’ve had amazing partnerships with a lot of local businesses,” continued Nazzaro. “We worked with a Boy Scout, Owen Giblin, from Troop 80 in Cranford, on his Eagle Scout project to create a sitting area to tie the area together and recognize the officers, both past and present, of the Cranford Police Department, especially Officer Robert Hand, who died in 1975.”

This parade, however, was especially significant, particularly because Wilde was the grand marshal.

“As the grand marshal, he was in a 1970s Plymouth that was marked to represent the current schematic of Cranford police cars, but with his badge number, No. 10,” said Nazzaro.

“It was a good day, the culmination of a lot of good work, especially for Harry Wilde,” he continued. “I was hired as a dispatcher when he was chief of police. For lack of a better expression, he is Cranford royalty, and he makes you proud to be a member of the Cranford Police Department and a resident of Cranford.”

First photo Courtesy of Matthew Nazzaro

Photos by Steve Ellmore