Verona Council makes moves to increase police presence in borough

Verona Council members have been seeing returns on their efforts to enhance recruitment and retention of police officers.

Borough officials have had struggles staffing the police department after its chief, Ron McLemore, was assaulted during a domestic violence call in November, leaving him unable to work.

Sgt. Jerry Frankos was named the officer in charge during McLemore’s absence. Another full-time officer returned to work in early 2024 after a nonwork-related injury. During his leave, the borough was left with one full-time and three part-time officers.

Verona leaned on state police, who helped with coverage, to get through its staffing challenges. The state police’s assistance has slowly decreased since January.

In an effort to attract more officers to the borough, council members unanimously voted to expand the benefits package offered to all full-time police officers.

“We increased health care to include families for officers and public works employees,” said borough Manager Stefanie Woolford.

Since then, council members hired Tom Dessell as a full-time officer on June 11. They are testing two more potential full-time officers at the end of the month, Woolford said.

Dessell said the expanded benefits package is what convinced him to take the job.

“I have two children,” he said. “Once they changed that, I was on board and chose to stick around for, hopefully, the remaining years of my career.”

Dessell has served as a part-time officer for the borough since February 2023.

“I grew up in Verona,” Dessell said. “It’s a hometown thing for me. My mother still lives there. I have family there.”