OC Sheriff’s Department Assists Municipalities
Officers with the Ocean County Sheriff's Department do much more than just serve warrants. They help play a critical role in assisting municipalities, especially during special events.
In addition to helping with crowd control during parades and at Christmas time during Black Friday shopping, Sheriff's Officers are out patrolling during extreme weather events.
Since Sheriff Michael G. Mastronardy took the helm more than a year ago, he has been lending his officers to municipalities, and last Thursday's snow storm was just one example of how municipal police can become overwhelmed with an influx of calls.
"The other towns are so backed up with calls that we're just out here assisting them. Anything they need from first aid calls to accidents, closing down roads, we're able to assist with that," said Sheriff's Officer Christine Kasullo, a seven-year member of the Department and an EMT. Her coverage territory that day was in the Manchester-Whiting area.
In less than one hour, during an impromptu ride along with Sheriff's Officer Kasullo, I got to experience first-hand what the job is like. As snow continued packing onto the already wet surface on Route 530 in Berkeley Township, we could see flashing police lights in the distance. A van had slipped into the woods.
As we continued driving, two units from the Sheriff's Department were helping close Lacey Road and diverting traffic due to a downed utility pole from an earlier accident.
"Basically, today what I'm doing is just driving through all the different developments and communities, just making sure everybody is okay. If they need assistance, they can flag me down. I'm just looking to see if there's a car into the woods, or anything like that, that we can assist with," said Kasullo.
The police scanner was buzzing too during our drive, with dispatchers alerting officers to a crash on the Garden State Parkway and of overturned vehicle in another town.
"Another role that we do is dialysis patients. If they're unable to drive themselves, or if their ride cannot pick them up due to the weather, we'll go and take them to dialysis. Same with our dispatchers. We need our dispatchers, so we'll go out and pick them up and bring them in to work, we'll go out and pick up nurses and medical staff and bring them into work," Kasullo said.
She explained the authority of a Sheriff's Officer is essentially the same as a Municipal Police Officer.
"We do have different roles, whether it's working in a court house, serving papers for a civil department, but we also have some of the same jobs where we can come out and assist with motor vehicle stops, arresting people, so we do work together a lot and any time they need us, we're out there helping them. We can issue motor vehicle summonses," Kasullo said.
She patrols with two passengers. "I have two canine. I have a German Sheppard. His name is Atos. He's a bomb and explosives dog, and I also have Gertrude-Penelope, who's one of our Bloodhounds and we use our bloodhounds for tracking people. Every day I go to work, they come with me and they live with me, so everywhere we go, we're always together," said Kasullo.
"I love that every day is something different, you never know what you're going to come up upon, what's going to happen, so that's really good. In another way, it can also be scary because you never know what people are capable of, so you always have to protect yourself, protect your partners," Kasullo said.
And despite being a woman, Kasullo said she personally has not experienced any inequalities and considers her male and female co-workers as an extended family.
"We have a lot of female officers, a lot of female supervisors, so it's pretty common right now. I'm here just as an officer, not as a female, that's how I feel it is," added Kasullo.
More From 92.7 WOBM
