Police Department

A local business has partnered with the Linden Police Department to make significant traffic safety improvements along a heavily-traveled street.

Rosedale & Rosehill Cemetery, located on E. Linden Ave, has operated in Linden for over 100 years. Linden Ave, which was once just a dirt road, has become a major thoroughfare within the city; it is one of only four roadways that directly connect Park and Wood Avenues with an estimated 8,000 vehicles that travel on it daily.

The Cemetery has maintained a vehicle crossing to transport materials and equipment from their offices across E. Linden Ave to the cemetery since 1998. Over the years, the volume and speed of traffic has dramatically increased. In 2019, Cemetery President, Jim Koslovski became worried for the safety of his employees, residents and surrounding businesses and contacted the Police Department to see what could be done. “The Linden Police Traffic Bureau was very responsive to our concerns and we immediately began the process of developing a comprehensive plan to make the street safer,” said Jim. 

New parking restrictions were adopted to improve visibility leading up to the crossing, and new signs were installed to make sure drivers were aware that vehicles could be crossing. A large portion of the work was delayed due to utility work, but last month the road was finally repaved thanks to a grant from the Union County Infrastructure program, and striping was added between Carteret St and Willow Glade Rd to reduce illegal parking violations and reduce speeding. Rosedale & Rosehill Cemetery generously contributed over $18,000 to make sure that the improvements were made without impacting the city’s budget.

“Safety is a priority for our employees, clientele and the citizens of Linden”, said Jim. “We have seen a reduction in speed, increased awareness by drivers as they travel along Linden Avenue as well as adhering to the posted speed limit. I personally want to thank Mayor Armstead, The Linden City Council, Councilman Roman, Chief Hart, Lt. Guenther, Sgt. Oliveira and the City of Linden Engineering Department for their support, time, and effort in helping complete this very important safety project.”

“We have seen very promising results from these improvements thus far,” said Linden Police Chief David Hart. “Unfortunately, funding is not always available to experiment with traffic control measures like these, so we are very grateful to have a generous and invested partners like Rosedale & Rosehill Cemetery.”

Officers will continue to monitor the area over the next year, and similar measures could be implemented in other areas if the results prove to be successful.

To download a PDF of this press release, click here.

Linden – Chief David Hart announced today that the Linden Police Department has entered into an agreement with LexisNexis to offer community members an easy-to-use service to file or request online reports.

“We want to make sure that the process to make and/or request a Police report is as simple and convenient as possible,” said Police Chief David Hart. “Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen an increasing demand to minimize the need for in-person reporting of minor incidents.”

The service provides community members with a quick and efficient way to report a variety of non-emergent incidents, such as harassing phone calls, identity theft, lost property, theft, traffic complaint, vandalism, and violations of a child custody agreement without coming to Police Headquarters or having an Officer in their home.

“This service will not only reduce the risk to Officers and the public as it relates to COVID-19 and other diseases, it allows us to more efficiently utilize our resources by reducing the demand for Officers to document minor incidents, giving them more time to focus on stopping criminals,” added Chief Hart.

For more information, or to access this service, please click here.

Click here to view and/or download a PDF of this press release.