The Riverside Township Police Department, with the
support of the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Township Committee, would like to
provide an update regarding the incident of March 25, 2019 at the Riverside
Township Public School.
On March 25, 2019, Riverside PD received information
regarding an incident at the school. The
Department immediately took action to report the matter to the Burlington
County Prosecutors Office and the New Jersey State Police, as called for under
the NJ Attorney General’s directive governing such incidents. Subsequent, an investigation was opened by
the Riverside PD. During the
investigation, students were interviewed, and the Riverside PD even reached out
to federal law enforcement agencies and requested assistance in handwriting comparison. The investigation did not lead us to believe
that the threat was credible. Even so, a plan was developed to provide additional
security at the schools on May 1, 2019.
The Burlington County Times reached out to the Township
regarding the incident and information was provided accordingly. Comments attributed to Chief Eliason in the Burlington
County Times articles, however, are not a full or adequate representation of
the context in which the statements were made. In addition, and for obvious
reasons, the full details of ongoing investigations cannot be shared with the
public. The citizens of Riverside have, and will always, be informed of any
credible threats, but this was not one of those instances.
Throughout this ongoing investigation, the decision was
consciously made not to immediately publicize the information in an effort to
avoid creating and perpetuating a baseless fear. Contrary to what has been suggested, there
was no attempt to evade or mislead the public. The Riverside Police Department
places an extremely high value on community outreach. We fully respect the
trust placed in us by members of the public, and fully embrace the
responsibility of protecting our citizens.
We understand and support the value of transparency when it comes to
police operations, but must always weigh that against the welfare of the
public, especially where our children our concerned.
The Riverside Police
Department will continue to work closely with the school district under the
Memorandum of Agreement that requires us to be informed of criminal and
other behavior that occurs in the schools, and we will continue to thoroughly
investigate all matters that are brought to our attention. The safety of our residents has always been,
and will always be, paramount to the officers and command staff of the
Riverside Police Department.
