Chief Leonhardt outlines goals for Point Boro police

POINT PLEASANT — One week into his role as police chief, Christopher Leonhardt sat down with The Ocean Star to discuss his police history and his overall goals for the future.

The role of chief is the highest position one can achieve in a police department. Chief Leonhardt said, “This job is nothing they ever teach you back in the police academy. It is nothing you ever learned back in basic training and it is not something they prep you for in these promotional exams. You are seriously managing this house and everything that comes with it. The bills, personnel, your family and on top of that, our job is looking out for 20,000 residents.”

He said despite all this responsibility, he has been well prepared from his own education and by the former chief, Adam Picca, to handle whatever this job has to throw at him.

One of his primary concerns is traffic and pedestrian safety. Speeding is a hot topic always brought up by residents at council meetings, and Chief Leonhardt hopes to alleviate residential concerns by cracking down hard on speeders throughout the town.

“Adam was a great chief of police. Where he laid that foundation of leadership and how it is going to be run here day-to-day, it is an easy transition of continuing this greatness,” said the chief. He attributed this success the police department has due to his fellow officers and the town council.

“I am in a good, advantageous position to be in to take over when I have this groundwork underneath me. I don’t need to come in here and make 80,000 changes,” said the chief. “Let’s keep this going, but let’s focus more on the problems that do exist.”

The chief further said, “I am excited for this opportunity and I am confident in what we need to do to handle any situation going forward…I am not looking to do an about-face with the way things have been working here. We got to where we are for a reason.”

This is an excerpt of the print article. For more on this story, read The Ocean Star—on newsstands Friday or online in our e-Edition.

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