Police chief set to retire
Joseph Kozeniewski to call it a career after 43 years in law enforcement
There have been quite a few changes since retiring Franconia Township Police Department Chief Joseph Kozeniewski started with the Upper Providence department more than 43 years ago.
For instance, in the early days, he said, the only equipment needed to start his patrol shifts was a flashlight, a citation folder, accident report forms and a transistor radio.
“The transistor radio was for my entertainment” while patrolling midnight shifts in the days before cars came equipped with AM/FM radios, Kozeniewski said.
Along with entertainment, the transistor radio also helped provide weather reports, such as how much snow was expected, he said.
Although the police cars had two-way radios to communicate with the county radio system, the officers did not have portable radios during the first few months he was with the Upper Providence department, Kozeniewski said.
“Having portable radios was a novel idea, and if you got out of your car for like a fam-
ily disturbance or something, you would have to tell the radio room, ‘If you don’t hear from me within five minutes, send help,’” he said.
Loudspeakers on the car could be heard inside the house and along the street, so officers could hear the radio room calling to check on the officer a few minutes later and the officer would then go to the car to let the radio room know he was OK, then return to the home, Kozeniewski said.
Since then, the technology has greatly increased, along with more information sharing in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he said.
“Our guys pretty much have the world at their hands with the laptops in their car,” Kozeniewski said. “They can check multiple, multiple databases. Before they even get out of the car, they do that.”
Although the Franconia department does not yet have an automated license plate reader, it expects to get one later this year or early next year, he said.
Before he even began working the streets as a police officer, Kozeniewski said, he saw an ad for a bullet-resistant vest and bought one.
“I took a lot of backlash from fellow cops — ‘What, you’re afraid?’ — and here we are 43 years later; they’re mandatory in nearly every department,” he said.
“Those vests have saved so many officers’ lives,” Kozeniewski said. “But in the summer, they’re hot as heck. They still haven’t solved that issue.”
Kozeniewski, who started with the Upper Providence Police Department in 1974, then came to the Franconia department in 1981, said his official retirement date is June 29, but with accumulated holiday and vacation time, his actual last day on the job will be May 4.
Between his 43 years as a police officer and his father’s 31 years as a Plymouth Township officer, the two put in a combined 74 years with Montgomery County police departments, Kozeniewski said.
After majoring in business administration at Drexel University, he said, he took a job as a dispatcher with the county radio system.
“I got to know just about every cop in the county, and then from knowing them, I guess the bug bit me,” he said.
Retirement plans include being “Pop-Pop’s Taxi” for his three grandsons, he said.
He and his wife, Beth, will continue living in the home they’ve lived in for 42 years, but there will also be time for more trips to their second home in Cape May, N.J., he said.
“It’s a getaway from everything,” Kozeniewski said. “There’s something very refreshing about the ocean.”
Franconia and the entire Indian Valley are among the safest places in the state to live, he said, but not entirely violencefree.
During his time with the Franconia force, there were three homicides, with the killer quickly apprehended in each case, he said.
Two of the murders, a 2015 stabbing at the JBS MOPAC rendering plant and an early 1980s shooting at the former Longacre Poultry plant, happened at workplaces. The third, in the 1980s, was of a Nicaraguan child who was beaten by his adoptive parents, Kozeniewski said.
There have also been some serious vehicle crashes in Franconia, he said, including the “heartbreaking” one in September in which Franconia Township public works employee David Smith was killed and fellow public works employee Jeff Moyer was seriously injured when the two were hit by a driver while working near West Broad Street Elementary School.
“That was family there,” Kozeniewski said.
“We don’t have a whole lot of crime, but we’ve had some good-size drug cases where we made arrests,” Kozeniewski said. “We don’t have a whole lot of sidewalks, so there’s not a lot of quote, unquote street crime.”
Car break-ins continue to be a concern, he said.
“It’s usually people breaking in to get laptops and things like that that can easily be pawned,” often for drug money, he said.
Residents are reminded to not leave items of value in their vehicles and to always lock their vehicle, he said.
When there is a break-in of one vehicle, there is usually an attempt to break into other vehicles in the immediate area, he said.
The move by Souderton Area High School to Franconia was “somewhat of a game-changer,” but has not created the problems some thought it would, he said.
“Every one told us, ‘Oh, you’re going to be up to your eyeballs,’” Kozeniewski said.
A lot of the credit for that not happening goes to Superintendent Frank Gallagher and Principal Sam Varano and their staffs, he said.
“They run a good, good show, and they know when to call us and when they can handle things inhouse,” Kozeniewski said.
Former Franconia police Chief Paul Hunsberger, who Kozeniewski called “the best mentor that I could ever have,” started the relationship with the schools, Kozeniewski said.
He said he’s tried to emulate Hunsberger’s attitude that policing is not an “us versus them”-type thing.
“The bad guys, yeah, we’re going after them,” Kozeniewski said, “but we are the community, the community is us and we can’t do our job without the support of the community.” The attendance at the former National Night Out events in Franconia and the Christmastime Shop with a Cop held in recent years by the department’s officers are two examples of the relationship between the community and the department, he said.
“Our guys have the biggest hearts in the world when it comes to being there for the community,” he said.
As he approaches his final day on the job, he’s begun to notice that he’s doing many things, such as submitting various types of reports, for the last time, Kozeniewski said.
“The finality of a lot of things is starting to hit home,” he said.
“I could not have had such a good run without the incredible people who have worked with me and for me,” he said. “I would be hard-pressed to find a finer group of people that I would want on my side.”
“Stay the course. It worked for me,” would be his advice to whoever is the department’s next chief, Kozeniewski said.
“You have a very supportive group of officers. You have a supportive group of elected officials,” he said, “and most importantly, you have a very supportive community.”