They guard critical traffic flow points for the President Clinton's motorcade, provide on-site crowd control, secure buildings and entryways used during presidential visits — but they are not the Secret Service.
Officers from the Princeton Borough Police Department — along with New Jersey State Police and University Public Safety — will be closely involved with Clinton's visit to campus next month.
Ensuring the president's safety is not a new job for Borough officers, who participated in Clinton's visit to Princeton this past summer. But guarding the leader of the free world is a difficult task for a small police department like the Borough's, said Capt. Charles Davall.
"The Secret Service relies heavily on local police for security. We only have 33 officers," he said. "We had about 25 officers on patrol or at traffic stations during the visit."
Public Safety will also be involved in the President's visit, said Barry Weiser, University crime prevention specialist.
"We'll do the campus side of traffic control," he said. "If there are any staging areas for the press, or he can't get into some building because of crowds, we'll help take care of that."
The needs of the Secret Service as it protects the president may force Borough Police to stretch its resources quite thin, Davall said.
However, Borough Police has not yet received a request from the Secret Service for assistance during Clinton's upcoming visit. "We will wait until we hear from the Secret Service to decide what we need to do," Davall said.
It is even more difficult to organize a department-wide initiative — such as aiding in a presidential visit — on short notice, he added.
Local authorities had little warning when the president visited Princeton for a few hours during the summer, Davall said.
"It was very short notice and we had to do a lot of work very quickly," he added. "What we couldn't do, the state police had to cover."
There are unforeseen events that the police are expected to deal with, Davall said, adding that careful preparation is essential to adequately protect the president. "This past summer [Clinton] changed his motorcade route to stop at a Starbucks," he said. "That was unexpected and caused some problems, but we were able to respond."
Aside from the manpower demands placed on local police, the department is often left facing high overtime expenses, Davall said. "The local police never get reimbursed. We probably spent $2,000 [providing security for the summer visit]," he said. "It will probably be the same this time."
The Secret Service has a policy of not reimbursing local police authorities for their services, Secret Service Spokesman Marc Connolly said.
But he emphasized that the Secret Service needs and appreciates local assistance.
"The Secret Service always tries to form partnerships with law enforcement and public safety officials," Connolly said.
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