Hazlet's new police chief has been hanging around the department since he was a little boy

As a kid growing up in Hazlet, Bob Mulligan would hang out at the police station. His father Robert Mulligan served as a cop in town for 35 years, retiring in 2005 as a detective captain.

“He would often bring me to headquarters and I’d be fascinated by sitting in the dispatch center and listening to the calls come in,” Bob recalled. “I’ve been around police officers my entire life. Their stories sparked my interest from second grade, and ever since then I never dreamed of being anything else but a police officer.”

Bob Mulligan joined Hazlet’s force in 1999, and Tuesday he was appointed chief of police, succeeding retiring chief Ted Wittke, under whom he’s served as deputy chief since 2020. Like Wittke, the 46-year-old Mulligan is a Raritan High School grad (Class of 1995) who knows the municipality like the back of his hand.

“It’s a 5.6-square-mile town,” he said. “It’s certainly helped that I’ve lived here.”

That said, much has changed since his father patrolled the neighborhoods. Under Wittke, the department launched a website as well as Facebook and Instagram pages, appointed a police chaplain, began a field-training program for officers to keep up with changes in technology and other aspects of the job, and started outreaches to the special-needs community and residents with substance addiction.

'People are struggling': Hazlet offers drug counseling, not just slamming jail doors

“Right from the start his vision was customer service, and he certainly instilled that part of the job into me,” Mulligan said. “I’m certainly going to look into the training and development of our officers. Although we’ve done a good job in the past, I feel like prioritizing ongoing training of our officers and staff with modern policing — for lack of a better term — is certainly something we’re going to put as a top priority.”

Mulligan said most of the department’s supervisors are maybe a decade into the job.

“We want to be responsive to their needs and understand that policing is changing,” he said.

What's Going There? TKK Fried Chicken opening first Jersey Shore store; others join it at Hazlet Town Center

One aspect that has changed in recent years is the presence of police officers in schools. Unlike some townships that devote full-time officers to school-resource duty, Hazlet employs five “special-3” officers — “police officers who retired in good standing who are hired back to work in our schools,” Mulligan said.

Would he like to see that change?

“It’s something we can probably look into in the future — specifically for the high school, it might be a good idea to get a full-time school-resource officer, but the officers who are there are working out fine,” he said. “They’re just as good as if we put someone from our own staff into the schools.”

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Hazlet's new police chief is the son of a retired Hazlet cop