Retired Police Chief supports Strada for sheriff

My name is Keith Armstrong, I have just recently retired as the Chief of Police, at Hardyston Township after 33 years in law enforcement and I would like to comment on retired Sheriff Officer Sgt. Terry Keleman’s rank and file views on the upcoming Sussex County Sheriff’s election. (A letter from Keleman ran in the issue of May 13.) I offer my opinion as former executive officer with decades of experience leading a law enforcement organization. I believe she was right on the money regarding her thoughts about candidate Wayne Yahm but has completely missed Mike Strada’s innovative and modern leadership approach to that office. Change is needed. Doing things in the traditional or comfortable way just does not work anymore. Experienced leaders know and recognize that “Status Quo” strangles the effectiveness and efficiency of any organization. Sgt. Keleman’s partner Dan Storey is campaigning on “not reinventing the wheel” which represents the comfortable, same old way of doing business. The innovative programs that Mike Strada has proposed are working in other jurisdictions and in Sussex County. The programs will increase services and yet produce cost savings. Isn’t that what we need, a new innovative approach? He has never campaigned, endorsed or even talked about reducing services. One pioneering program Strada wants to implement is a bracelet program, now used successfully in Sussex County for Juvenile Detainees that is saving county residents $750,000 a year. Strada proposes using the same type of system to monitor nonviolent adult offenders with medical conditions, because once a person is incarcerated in the Sussex County Jail, all medical costs become the responsibility of the county. In the last two years county residents have spent over $1.5 million in medical costs for inmates. Strada’s proposal could result in huge savings for county residents. Strada is ready to implement the bracelet program for nonviolent adult offenders. It is important to note that Strada will keep the violent criminals in jail where they belong and this program is only for nonviolent adult offenders. Keith A. Armstrong Hamburg