Princeton Police Department

100 Courthouse Road

Princeton, WV  24740-2431

Phone (304) 487-5000

Fax (304) 487-5002

E-mail:   princetonwvpolicedept@frontiernet.net

William L. Harman

Police Chief

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The Princeton Police Department, established 1909, proudly launched our Centennial Year with our loyal motto “TO SERVE AND PROTECT”.  Our mission, to provide the highest quality of life possible to residents, business owners and visitors of the City of Princeton, by safeguarding property and protecting lives, is one we execute with great conviction.

µ      Assuring superiority in performance of duties, officers must pass our stringent testing and standards and are required to achieve certification from the WV State Police Academy. Continuing law enforcement education throughout their careers is mandatory.  We provide 24-hour police protection in three rotating eight hour shifts; each supervised by a Commanding Officer and Sergeant.  Our Detective Bureau and K-9 Unit are readily available resources to all three shifts.  Our Parking Enforcement Officer/Crossing Guard assists with parking issues from the daily influx of traffic and provides traffic safety to our primary school students.  Through high visibility and proactive enforcement, we experienced a decrease of .05% in calls for service from last year, for a total of 5,776.  Of those calls 3,375 resulted in arrests and/or citations. 

 

µ      We added three new officers to our ranks this past year: Officer B. E. Grimm, Officer A. M. Buck, and Officer C. S. Winkler.  Duty weapons were upgraded to a newer version of Glock handguns.  We purchased three Pistol Cams with built in lights, laser sights, and digital filming/still capture capabilities.  Two new Dodge Chargers were added to our fleet and all units within the fleet were equipped with Swine Flu Preparedness Kits in the event an outbreak reaches our area.

 

µ      Administrative offices extended hours of operation are 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, Monday – Friday.  Office personnel provide service to the public and officer support, perform records management, and process submissions required by state and federal agencies.  Technological advances are key in law enforcement and our administrative staff is committed to obtaining the most cutting edge technology available.  With an emphasis placed on grant funding to subsidize technology upgrades, some new projects follow:

        1. Telephone/Digital Recording System–Community Participation Program Funding, $10,500 – Communications are of the highest of priorities in law enforcement.

        2. Tomar Traffic Light Preemption Emitter–Community Foundation of the Virginias, $1,800 – Allows traffic light to change to green, on approach of emergency vehicles, providing travel through the intersection in a safe and expedited manner.

        3. Digital Mobile Radios & Fingerprinting–Edward Byrne Memorial JAG Program, $111,989 – Digital mobile radio technology will provide clear and consistent radio  communications throughout our department, allowing interoperability with other jurisdictions and with the WV State Emergency Service Organizations, thereby providing security for the City of Princeton.  Inkless digital fingerprinting with connectivity to the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, provides photo imaging capability with the fingerprint record for a comprehensive digital identification system, and immediate criminal record searches, providing national security at our local level.

Pending Grant Requests: 

1.   Digital Radios Communications – Edward Byrne Memorial JAG Program. 

$27,239 – Portable digital radios remain on officer’s person for mission critical situations.  Continues the digital mobile phase in new cruisers added to the fleet. 

2.   Digital Cameras – Community Foundation of the Virginias, Inc.

$2,116.80 – Digital cameras issued to each officer for documenting traffic crashes, crime scenes, and assisting with the prosecution of perpetrators of crime.  The modern judicial system requires new technology in documenting crimes.

3.   Interview/Interrogation Room – Community Participation Grant.

$10,000 – Set up room providing audio/video monitoring of suspects, victims, and witnesses of criminal offenses.  The modern judicial system has new requirements in documenting investigations pursuing conviction of offenders. 

µ      Networking with other law enforcement agencies facilitates in making our city safer.  For our participation in “Operation Falcon” with the U. S. Marshals Service, we were awarded a Certificate of Appreciation.  We are active participants in Child Protect, Mercer County’s Special Response Team, the Southern Regional Drug & Violent Crime Task Force and the WV Coalfields Highway Safety Program (sponsored Child Safety Seat Certification for Officer D. B. Whited).  Interaction with those agencies allows the pooling of additional resources and expands awareness of suspicious and illegal activity.   

µ      Striving to foster positive interaction with police officers, we get involved with the community.  We actively participated in educational sessions at Mercer County Public Schools, presented safety information during Celebrate Princeton, distributed safety bracelets and Halloween Treat bags for Halloween, and we welcome tours of local youth groups.  We greatly appreciate organizations supporting the Princeton Police Department, such as Willis Chiropractic and all who supported their Cuddly Critters for Kids Toy Drive.  Their goal was to collect toys for officers to give to traumatized children involved in accidents or criminal investigations.  We have had local churches involved in similar programs in the past and it is a great success when a child is comforted.   All of these activities promote community awareness and contribute to a brighter future for tomorrow.