One of N.J.’s top cops – credited with curbing city’s violent crime – is retiring – NJ.com

Those who have worked with Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose in his 35-year law enforcement career will tell you he’s the quintessential lawman.

“He lives for police work,” said Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura, who selected Ambrose to be undersheriff 14 years ago. “…This is what he always wanted to do. He works at it all the time.”

Ambrose’s last official day on the job will be March 31, when he will retire and hand over the reins to Deputy Chief Brian O’Hara to oversee a public safety department with more than 900 police officers and 600 firefighters.

But Ambrose, 62, doesn’t plan to say goodbye to law enforcement even then. He’ll be working for “a big consulting company” in law enforcement and public administration, he said, declining to name or elaborate on his new gig.

Ambrose was picked by Mayor Ras Baraka in 2015 to lead what was then a newly-formed public safety department that consolidated police, fire and emergency management. He took on the job at a time when the police department was on the verge of entering into a list of reforms known as a consent decree after a federal investigation found a pattern of unconstitutional practices.

“I knew that a consent decree was looming, and it was coming,” Ambrose told NJ Advance Media. “And I like a challenge. I love a challenge. I think that’s what drives me.”

The position was a bit of a homecoming for him. Ambrose joined the Newark Police Department in 1986 and quickly rose through the ranks to become the youngest police chief in the department’s history in 1999 at the age of 40.

Ambrose grew up in the city’s North Ward and knew he wanted to be a cop from a young age. He wrote a letter as a child to former Newark Police Director John Redden for a school assignment asking if he could become a cop, but was admittedly turned down at the time.

“Respectfully, I must tell you that you are too young,” Redden wrote back to Ambrose. “A policeman must be twenty-one (21) years of age. It is a pleasure to hear from you, please continue your studies and schooling and when you are of age to become a policeman, I hope you will become successful in your chosen field.”

Ambrose would actually drop out of high school (he said he was hanging out with an older crowd who stayed out late and he wanted to do the same) and became a mechanic before he shifted careers and joined the police academy to fulfill his childhood dream. His uncle had been a Newark police officer and he became fascinated by the work when he was five and saw officers on the job during a snowstorm.

“I wasn’t intrigued by the gun. I wasn’t intrigued by the uniform,” said Ambrose, who would go on to get his master’s degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University. “I was just intrigued that they were out there when nobody else was there. And they were just in that car riding around, making sure people were safe. And I thought that was cool.”

Bloomfield Public Safety Director Samuel DeMaio went to the police academy with Ambrose and was his patrol partner when they both started out. He remembered the two once stood back to back with each other in 1986 as they responded to a large group that charged at them.

“If you’re going through a door, he’s the guy you want going through with you,” DeMaio said.

Former Newark Police Director Joseph Santiago was a mentor to Ambrose, who handled day-to-day operations as chief at the department under his tenure from 1996 to 2002. In 1997, Ambrose learned about CompStat, a computer system that tracks crime trends, from the New York Police Department and brought it to Newark.

That technology — and officers’ accountability meetings that followed — is still used today and is one factor that has helped reduce violent crime in Newark. The city in 2013 had the nation’s third-highest murder rate among other large cities with about 111 homicides, but that number has steadily decreased under Ambrose’s tenure since he became director in 2015.

There were 52 homicides reported in Newark in 2020, according to department data, and overall crime in the city reached a 50-year low in 2018.

But it’s partnerships with the community and residents that have also helped reduce crime, Ambrose said. Residents and groups can now voice their opinions on police policy, especially after consent decree reforms called for the department to increase public information programs.

Ambrose left his job as police director in Newark after Cory Booker became mayor. From there, he worked in county law enforcement, first becoming an Essex County undersheriff in 2007 and then chief of detectives at the prosecutor’s office.

Thomas Fennelly, Essex County’s chief assistant prosecutor, worked with Ambrose in the homicide unit when he was chief of detectives. Ambrose worked on cases like the deadly Short Hills mall carjacking and the killing of 19-year-old Brendan Tevlin, who was shot multiple times in West Orange in 2014.

“He was on the forefront of community policing and he always listened to the community and wanted to make sure they had a voice,” Fennelly said. “Every crime victim is somebody’s relative. That was one of the things that motivated him and motivated the men and women who worked with him.”

All those NJ Advance Media spoke to who had worked with Ambrose said he had an ability to bring law enforcement at the federal, state, county and local levels together to combat crime.

Officials from all over the state released statements on Ambrose’s retirement when it was announced last month. New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said Ambrose oversaw “dramatic changes in the culture of the Newark Police Department.”

“…He exemplified the best in law enforcement collaboration through initiatives such as the Newark Violent Crime Initiative, working with agencies at all levels, including my office, to achieve remarkable reductions in violent crime.”

The city is entering a unique time as the coronavirus pandemic continues and the nation is still reeling from the unrest in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.

Ambrose’s successor, O’Hara, will likely need to still navigate how the virus impacts personnel and crime. O’Hara is starting his job as director weeks before the start of summer, a time when crime usually increases across cities. And while homicides remained almost level in 2020 in comparison to 2019, non-fatal shootings increased.

This past summer, protests in Newark after Floyd’s death were tense but remained non-violent. O’Hara will still need to manage any future protests in a city that is historically known for its activism and rallies.

“I think we’ve done a lot of work here,” Ambrose said. “I’m leaving this place better than I found it, without a doubt. And I’ll also say it’s going in the hands of the right team.”

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Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com.