North Bergen Chief of Police Robert J. Dowd has announced his retirement from the North Bergen Police Department.
Chief Dowd, a lifelong resident of North Bergen, is retiring from the police department effective May 1. According to the press release dated Feb. 5, Dowd’s announcement comes after a 26-and-a-half-year career with the NBPD.
“Chief Dowd has been instrumental in the growth of our Police Department and the high level of efficiency and professionalism associated with our police force,” said Mayor Nicholas J. Sacco. “We would like to thank Chief Dowd for his service and dedication to the Township of North Bergen and wish him a happy retirement and nothing but the best in his future endeavors.”
Chief Dowd will be succeeded by Deputy Chief Peter Fasilis. Over the next few months, Dowd will work closely with his successor during the transition. Fasilis is set to take the oath of office on May 1.
Dowd was the 9th Chief of Police in the department’s history.
A legacy of safety and transparency
In 2016, Chief Dowd was invited to the White House by the Obama Administration to participate in discussions on the President’s 21st Century Policing Taskforce.
Dowd is an Accredited Chief Executive—Chief of Police—Advanced (ACE-COP) designated by the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police. He served as the President of the Hudson County Chiefs of Police Association in 2017.
Dowd is currently the commanding officer of the 144-member Accredited North Bergen Police Department. During his tenure as Chief of Police, Dowd is credited with changing the culture of the department by obtaining for the first time an accredited status in 2016 as well as re-accredited status in 2019, according to a press release.
Dowd also formulated a crime control strategy that has enabled North Bergen to achieve some of its lowest crime statistics in recorded history.
Two national studies of more than 16,000 cities with populations of 50,000 or more have revealed how safe the township was under his leadership.
According to the press release, the studies name the Township of North Bergen as the 23rd safest city in the nation, the 6th safest city in New Jersey, and the safest community in Hudson County.
Dowd credits the success of his crime control strategy to the department’s embrace of cutting-edge technology. A combination of CompStat crime briefings, hotspot policing, and community policing were part of the policy that led to a safer North Bergen.
During his time at the NBPD, Dowd strove to make the NBPD become completely transparent by sharing information through the White House Police Data Initiative. Part of this initiative included posting crime data monthly on its website, and magnifying community outreach through social media.
He is a Certified Public Manager (CPM), having earned his CPM designation at Rutgers University.
Dowd is a graduate of the FBI’s Law Enforcement Executive Development Seminar, and has earned a Master of Science in Criminal Justice from New Jersey City University (NJCU) where he is an adjunct professor of criminal justice.
Dowd has studied policing at the United Kingdom’s College of Policing in Manchester and Scotland Yard, England, as well as the Scottish Police College in Fife, Scotland.
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