By JACQUELINE DURETT
Correspondent
EDISON — The recent promotion of five officers to sergeant prompted one councilwoman to question whether women were being given the same opportunities as men to advance within the force.
Councilwoman Sapana Shah said at the May 23 township meeting she was disappointed that no women were among those promoted. “Do we have a plan on promoting them, giving them the training they need?” she asked.
According to the township, there are 10 women on the 184-strong force. There are no female sergeants or lieutenants.
“We had a testing procedure and however they scored, they scored,” Capt. Patrick Kelly responded.
Shah said she felt that Chief Thomas Bryan has been doing great work in diversifying the department, but a better reflection of the population the department is serving is needed. She recommended implementing a program in the department to “assist some of the underrepresented groups to get to that point.”
Shah said women have advanced in the military and in business, but cannot seem to do so in the township police force.
“It’s really just difficult to just accept that we’re the only town that can’t have these spots to promote certain individuals and certain groups that are really underrepresented,” she said.
Kelly said in his experience in the military, women who advanced did so because their scores qualified them to advance.
“We just didn’t have women score as high this time,” Kelly said. “I’d like to see it also. Nobody’s holding anyone back.” He said Bryan would also like to see women advance.
Councilman Leonard Sendelsky pointed out that he knows some officers who waited a long time to receive a promotion on the force and found it very valuable to participate in a class on the topic. “It’s a very rigorous thing, and it requires a lot of extra time that they have to put in to do this.” He recommended anyone interested in a promotion consider taking one of those classes to assist them in the process.
Councilman Alvaro Gomez, who is on the Public Safety Committee, said the township has worked hard in the past to implement a fair promotion process that was as merit-based as possible. “There’s a lot of effort, and there was a lot of dedication and studying that went on, and unfortunately you don’t get to have everybody be at the top. And that’s the unfortunate part of a process like this.”
He said he knows many of the women on the force, “and they have always done an outstanding job.” He said police leadership should be attainable by men and women alike, given they have integrity and commitment.
He said the Public Safety Committee would look at the issue again to ensure the process was as free from political influence as possible. “Our goal is to certainly continue to work with everyone and make the process as clean as possible.”
