Prosecutor Andrew Carey said "there's still some cleaning up to be done."
EDISON -- The police department in the state's fifth-largest town is in the news yet again.
The theft charge filed against recently retired police Captain Natale "Andy" Fresco last week was just the latest in a continuing string of embarrassing episodes for the Edison Police Department. But the man who filed the charge, and who also oversees the Edison's Internal Affairs bureau, said the department is headed in the right direction.
Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey speaks at a press conference as Edison Police Chief Thomas Bryan, right, looks on. (Brian Amaral | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) "The Edison Police Department has come a long way in the last couple of years," Prosecutor Andrew Carey, the chief law enforcement officer in Middlesex County, said Monday in an interview at his office.
The detective bureau, Carey said, is excellent. Even IA, whose officers had been accused of targeting political opponents of a former mayor several years ago, is "among the best in the state." Carey's office holds considerable sway over the goings-on in Internal Affairs, in part due to the controversies the police's police had generated.
Carey added that a new hiring and promotions ordinance, passed last year, will help mend a troubled police department.
"There's still some cleaning up to be done," Carey added.
MORE: Ex-Edison police captain charged with theft
For Carey, like Edison Police Chief Thomas Bryan, the new charges are a sign that reforms are working and misdeeds aren't going undetected -- rather than a sign that the department is spiraling out of control. State Sen. Peter Barnes, a former Edison councilman, has suggested that the attorney general's office take over the department's IA.
Fresco's attorney previously said that town officials were aware of his plans to take a new job at the mall while collecting sick time for a serious illness, and that his conduct was not illegal. Prosecutors allege Fresco stole $43,000 by doing so.
In October, Edison fired a police officer who was accused of pressuring a woman to try on lingerie at a hotel room. He's fighting to get his job back. Carey's office is also preparing to try a case against four suspended Edison cops accused of engaging in an alleged retaliation scheme.
Bryan was in Internal Affairs for 14 years, and said that 20 officers lost their jobs during his tenure.
"The department is a very good department," Bryan said. "The men and women are very dedicated, they do a great job. But when you take on the challenge of changing the culture that's been embedded for decades, it takes time."
Still, the drumbeat continues -- even as Bryan argues that the data shows Edison is among the safest large towns in the state.
"Every time that happens, it's in the press, and it paints a picture that's bad for all the officers on the department that are good officers and do a good job," Bryan said. "It makes their job that much harder."
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