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He鈥檚 a familiar face to the veterans of the Prince George鈥檚 County Police Department, but new police Chief George Nader said his time away from the county, where he spent over two decades working, will be an asset now that he鈥檚 made his return.
Calling the department an organization he knows and loves, Nader said the transition has been easy so far. After a few weeks on the job, he sat down for interviews with local media, including WTOP.
While he鈥檚 been away from the department for the last nine years, he didn鈥檛 go far 鈥� serving as the deputy chief with the Metro Transit Police Department. It鈥檚 that experience away from the department that he thinks will also help him lead the agency going forward.
鈥淚 learned some things different that work that I didn’t know about here in Prince George’s County, because it was just, we knew Prince George’s County,鈥� Nader said. 鈥淏ut there are other agencies that are doing great things and one advantage about Metro Transit Police is you work with all the local jurisdictions.”
One directive he said people want to bring back is the , a program that began under former County Executive Rushern Baker. Nader was around the department when it launched, serving as a major in District 3, the central portion of the county.
鈥淚t had levels of accountability within the government,鈥� Nader said. 鈥淪o what happens a lot of times is the police department carries the burden of a lot of other entities within the county government. But now, having everybody at the table, what should be in health and human services, they’re going to be held accountable too, and we’re going to work in partnership with one another.”
He said the initiative was successful during his time in Prince George’s County.
鈥淲e need to work together, and we need to bring all the resources of the county together to address these issues,鈥� he added. 鈥淲hen you bring all those resources together, you see results, as we did. We had the lowest crime year in the history of Prince George’s County in many years when we were implementing the TNI.鈥�
Biggest challenges
But the biggest challenge he said he鈥檚 facing could also impact how well TNI will work in the county.
Nader said the department is short more than 300 officers at the moment, and said it鈥檚 critically important to replace officers who have left or retired. He added that the way the department goes about recruiting has to evolve.
鈥淲e need to change maybe some of the methodologies that we use, target social media. We need to target gamers. We need to target car enthusiasts,鈥� Nader said. 鈥淲hat we’re looking to do is go in that realm where we’re looking for people to express interest in our profession, whether it’s in the gyms, whether we go abroad. We like to stay within the county, because I think having county residents is important.”
A lot of times, police departments put a lot of focus on younger, newer officers who might go the full 25 years. Nader suggested the county could go beyond that to fill some of the vacancies.
鈥淓ven if we start talking to folks that have the ability to retire at a young age 鈥� 40, 50 鈥� but they want to work 10 years, ‘OK, come work here as a police officer for 10 years. It鈥檚 a great job,’鈥� Nader said. 鈥淪o maybe shifting our thinking to, ‘Well, we’re looking for somebody that’s going to do 25 years here.’ Well, you know what? How about we open it up to the 10-year, 15-year person that wants to do something else for a while?鈥�
In the meantime, he鈥檚 working on ways to free up officers’ schedules that allow them more time for policing.
鈥淚f I can take 30 minutes off what an officer does every day, that’s 30 minutes more they could do proactive policing, they could be out in the community, they can answer calls for service,鈥� Nader said. 鈥淪o how can we reduce time needed with the staffing that we currently have is something we should look at also.鈥�
But despite those challenges, it’s clear he was excited about the potential impact he could have on a department he cares about. Nader said he hopes that excitement rubs off on his officers, and they take a positive view about their job and carry that into the community.
鈥淲e also provide a service to our community that uplifts the community and they know that, one, we care about them,鈥� Nader said. 鈥淭wo, we’re going to be responsive to them; and then three, we’re going to address their concerns.鈥�
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