Our History
A Tradition of Service
The East Rutherford Police Department was officially designated by Borough Ordinance in April of 1906 and began operating out of its first Police Headquarters located within Borough Hall at 1 Everett Place.
Officers would initially patrol on foot using the trolley that operated along Paterson Avenue to move from one end of town to the other while using call boxes located throughout the town to communicate back to police headquarters. In the 1920’s the department supplemented foot patrol with motorized patrol with the introduction of its first motorcycle. As technology advanced the department began using police cars equipped with mobile radios.
In 1963, cramped for space, with antiquated communications and with a growing population, police headquarters was relocated from Borough Hall to 312 Grove Street.
East Rutherford’s geographical location within southern Bergen County, just 7 miles west of midtown Manhattan and at the convergence of Route 3, Route 120, Route 17 and the New Jersey Turnpike (Interstate 95) has always posed unique issues and challenges for the police department.
During the 1970s the State of New Jersey redeveloped a large portion of the borough to the east, placing it under the control of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. Shortly after, what became known as the Meadowlands Sports Complex was constructed and the demands and challenges faced by the department changed drastically.
Over the next three decades, the Sports Complex became home to a total of five major league sport teams (NFL – NY Giants, NY Jets / NBA – NJ Nets, NHL – NJ Devils, MLS – NJ Red Bulls), hosted international sporting events, horse racing, world class concerts and events attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.
January of 2013, again cramped for space, with aging communications and an ever evolving borough, the police headquarters was combined with the municipal court and relocated from Grove Street to it’s current location at 117 Stanley Street. Complete with a booking area with eight cells, large training room and Dispatch Center with state of the art communications equipment prepared the department for the challenges to come in the decades ahead.
February 2, 2014, Super Bowl 48 was played at MetLife Stadium making East Rutherford the smallest town to ever host a Super Bowl. Over the course of four years members of the East Rutherford Police Department and the New Jersey State Police worked, trained and prepared alongside our federal, state, county and local partners to secure the event and protect our residents and visitors.
October of 2019 will mark the opening of the long awaited American Dream Meadowlands entertainment and retail complex on Sports Complex Grounds. Once completely open in March 2020 the complex will boast an indoor water park with 70 waterslides and the world’s largest indoor wave pool, an indoor amusement park with 35 rides and attractions, the only indoor ski slope in the western hemisphere, an indoor NHL ice rink and about 400 retail stores.
Over the last 125 years East Rutherford has evolved from a sleepy blue collar borough of a few thousand residents to the premiere sports, entertainment and shopping destination attracting millions of visitors annually. The East Rutherford Police Department has continued to rise to meet the unique challenges of a borough that remains a small town to the west and a thriving city to the east. The department remains on the cutting edge of policing, leveraging the latest technology and communications combined with highly trained and dedicated officers to provide the most effective and efficient police services our residents and visitors have come to expect.