When you think about community policing, isn’t it beneficial to have officers who know the territory, the residents and something of their problems? During the Oct. 14 township committee meeting, Little Egg Harbor Township’s new police chief, James Hawkins, proposed the committee hire four police officers, all of whom grew up in Little Egg Harbor and graduated from Pinelands Regional High School.

Sydney Dietrick, age 23, is a 2016 Pinelands graduate with a bachelor of arts in forensics from Stockton University.