WAYNE J. FORREST
SOMERSET COUNTY PROSECUTOR
DECEMBER 1997 TO PRESENT

On December 19, 1997, Wayne J. Forrest took the oath of office to become the 22nd Prosecutor for Somerset County. On July 3, 2003, he was sworn-in to a second term as Prosecutor. Having been a former military officer and paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, a police officer, criminal investigator, deputy attorney general and law enforcement administrator and manager from 1975 to the present, for both appointments he received bipartisan and unanimous approval from both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate. Charged with the difficult task of rebuilding the County's Prosecutor's Office and restoring the public's confidence in law enforcement in Somerset County, in short order Prosecutor Forrest took the office from national disgrace under his predecessor to statewide and national prominence.

Since 1997, the number of defendant’s indicted or charged by accusation has increased significantly from 667 defendants in 1997 to over 1,000 defendants as of 2005. The Somerset County Prosecutor's Office achieved and maintained the status of first in the State with the lowest backlog of pre-indictment cases. During Prosecutor Forrest's tenure, the jury trial conviction rate averaged among the highest in the State at approximately 80%. In fact in 2003, the Prosecutor’s Office attained an unprecedented 96.4% jury trial conviction rate. In total over the past 10 years our Assistant Prosecutor’s tried approximately 400 cases. In addition, the Prosecutor's Office is among the highest in the State in the number of cases tried per year per assistant prosecutor. The Somerset County Prosecutor's Office has also maintained one of the highest percentage of cases disposed of by way of trial. Throughout his two terms in office, Prosecutor Forrest required more advanced training for his legal staff and instituted a monthly Continuing Legal Education Program. In addition, he created the "Somerset County Law Enforcement Newsletter", which is an informational professional periodical for all of law enforcement throughout Somerset County.

The Somerset County Prosecutor's Office Criminal Investigation Division’s Detective Bureau has also experienced a significant increase in caseload since 1997. In 1997 the total investigative workload for the then 53 member Detective Bureau was 323 cases which consistently increased to 3,260 by 2006 with a staffing level of 56 detectives. From December 1997 to the present, the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office handled an unprecedented number of homicide cases. In December 2003, defendant Charles Cullen, a nurse at the Somerset Medical Center, was arrested and charged with the murder of one patient and the attempted murder of a second patient. After four months of investigation, in April 2004, defendant Cullen pled guilty to 13 murders and two attempted murders of patients at the hospital. This case is the largest mass murder case ever in Somerset County and in New Jersey.

In October 1998, after receiving a grant, Prosecutor Forrest established the first countywide Vehicular Homicide Task Force and Collision Analysis Reconstruction (C.A.R.) Team. Also in the month of October 1998, the re-structured county-wide Organized Crime and Narcotics Task Force executed the largest drug raid ever in Somerset County arresting more than 100 drug dealers. As part of a Statewide Attorney General's Quality of Life Initiative, the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office Organized Crime and Narcotics Task Force was credited with making the most arrests in the State. In 1999, as a result of our increased narcotics enforcement efforts, we accounted for approximately 70 percent of all electronic surveillance applications before the designated wiretap judge for five counties, including Somerset. The number of successful wiretap investigations continued every year thereafter. In 2000, our annual Quality of Life drug enforcement initiative resulted in charges being filed against almost 200 defendants. In 2001, more than 250 defendants were arrested and by 2006 more than 350, defendants were arrested by the Organized Crime and Narcotics Task Force resulting in continuing years of double digit percent increases in drug arrests. Year after year, along with continued increased drug enforcement, Prosecutor Forrest began to enhance our demand reduction efforts by establishing Project S.T.A.N.D. (Somerset Teaming-up Against Narcotics and Drugs). This program has included annual anti-drug and anti-violence calendar poster contests and D.A.R.E. Days at the Somerset Patriots Ballpark.

In 1998, Prosecutor Forrest also implemented a new county-wide criminal intelligence system utilizing the state-of-the-art "CrimeNtel" software. This criminal intelligence computer system has proven to be an important component to our increased narcotics enforcement efforts and our countywide and multi-jurisdictional burglary task forces' successes. In addition, in 2003 a Stolen Property Identification Program was established to gather information from pawnshops, jewelry stores and businesses dealing in secondhand goods to compare to reports of property stolen from throughout the County. To further facilitate all of the Criminal Intelligence Unit's initiatives, in 2003 a web-based Somerset County Law Enforcement Network (S.C.L.E.N.) was created. In July 2007, a first of its kind in the State, web-based Stolen Vehicle Database was established to allow citizens to assist the police in recovering stolen vehicles.

In June 1998, the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office became the first prosecutor's office in the State to implement the TRAK (Technology to Recover Abducted Kids) system, which was donated by AT&T. In December 1998, we were one of the first Prosecutor's Offices in the State to join with the F.B.I. in establishing the first Northeast Regional Child Exploitation "Innocent Images" Task Force, located in Franklin Township, Somerset County. In conjunction with this initiative, in 1998, Prosecutor Forrest also created the first Computer Crimes Unit in the Prosecutor's Office. In March 1998, he created the County's first Fugitive Task Force and, with the cooperation of the Courier News newspaper, began a "Somerset County's Most Wanted" column, which is now also printed in the Messenger-Gazette and The Reporter newspapers.

In January of 2003, after receiving a grant, Prosecutor Forrest hired a registered nurse to serve as the Coordinator of the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (S.A.N.E.) project. As a member of the Prosecutor's Office, the S.A.N.E. Coordinator serves as a member of the Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Unit's Sexual Assault Response Team (S.A.R.T.) and works directly with Prosecutor's Office detectives, municipal police officers and rape care advocates in response to allegations of sexual assault.

In April 1998, Prosecutor Forrest instituted an Annual Law Enforcement Award for Outstanding Crime Victim Advocacy. That same month he also acquired the ADT A.W.A.R.E. (Abused Women's Active Response Emergency) system for domestic violence victims in Somerset County. In June 1998, he added the Bell Atlantic Mobile's "Wireless-At-Work" cellphones for use by any at risk crime victim in Somerset County. In October 2005, Prosecutor Forrest implemented the Victim Information and Notification Everyday (V.I.N.E.) system in Somerset County. This automated notification system contacts victims by telephone to notify them when an inmate on that victim’s case is released from jail.

Working closely with all of our schools in Somerset County, in 1998, Prosecutor Forrest began an annual "Law Enforcement and Educators Conference" which is held each fall. Soon after the tragedy at the Columbine High School in Colorado in April 1999, we teamed up with Bell Atlantic Mobile and created the first cell phone recycling program of its kind in the nation named Project C.L.A.S.S. (Cellphones and Law Enforcement Assisting Students in Schools). In addition, we created a School Safety Task Force, which drafted a model Crisis Management Plan for Schools. Beginning in 1999, Prosecutor Forrest had our countywide S.W.A.T. Team, Crisis Negotiation Team and Emergency Medical Team conduct school crisis response drills at various school facilities throughout the County. In August 1999, through a donation, we acquired an armored recovery vehicle for use by the S.W.A.T. Team.

In June 1999, after receiving a grant, we established our first Insurance Fraud Unit. At the request of the municipalities of South Bound Brook, Montgomery and Bound Brook, Prosecutor Forrest superseded and assumed control of their police departments in March and July 1999 and October 2004, respectively, each for approximately one year. Finally, in 1999, through the use of forfeiture funds, we purchased a new state-of-the-art prosecutorial and investigative computerized records system for the Prosecutor's Office known as "InfoShare".

In 2000, after receiving donated equipment, Prosecutor Forrest created the first countywide Dive-Rescue Team, which became a part of and drills monthly with the other countywide S.C.E.R.T. (Somerset County Emergency Response Teams); i.e., S.W.A.T. Team, Crisis Negotiation Team, Emergency Medical Team and Dive-Rescue Team.

In 2004, Prosecutor Forrest created a multi-disciplinary county-wide Arson Investigation Task Force. This Task Force includes an assistant prosecutor, Prosecutor's Office detectives, municipal police officers, municipal fire officials and municipal firefighters.

In Somerset County, the Prosecutor operates the Police Academy. In 1998 the Somerset County Police Academy became the first and only Police Academy in the State to receive approval from the Police Training Commission to integrate the Basic Course for Corrections Officers with the Basic Course for Police Officers. Also in 1998, we began our efforts to regionalize the Academy with law enforcement in Hunterdon and Middlesex Counties, to relocate to the campus of our bi-county Raritan Valley Community College and to integrate the Police Academy with the College's Criminal Justice Program and advanced degree offerings in criminal justice. In 1999, the Somerset County Police Academy became the first and only Police Academy in the nation for its police recruits to receive defibrillator certification, Community Policing Certification from the U.S. Department of Justice, and New Jersey Police Training Commission Certification, all simultaneously at time of graduation. As part of the Community Policing Certification Program, in the Year 2000, we were the first and only Police Academy in the nation to develop and implement into the Community Policing curriculum the "Careful Crossings Program." In October 2000, we moved our Police Academy's entire operation to the 260 acre campus of the Raritan Valley Community College. In 2001, we became the first Police Academy in the nation to have certified all of our cadre, including both police and corrections staff and the Academy Director as certified Community Policing Officers. Since 1997, the Police Academy has been operating a highly successful "Police Youth Week" each summer for high school students. In 2001, the Somerset County Police Academy was selected by the producers of Court TV to be the only Police Academy in the nation to be featured in a television documentary special, that was aired in 2002, about the transformation of young men and women from private citizens into sworn police officers. In October of 2004, Warren County Community College was approved by the New Jersey Police Training Commission as a satellite facility of the Somerset County Police Academy making it the only tri-county Police Academy in the state.

In 2000, Prosecutor Forrest relocated the Prosecutor's Office Forensics Laboratory and Crime Scene Investigation (C.S.I.) Unit to a larger facility and began enhancing its capabilities. In addition to acquiring a number of new state-of-the-art instruments and equipment for crime scene processing and laboratory analysis, he also acquired an Integrated Ballistics Identification System (I.B.I.S.) and a new Mobile Crime Scene Investigation vehicle through a grant from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (A.T.F.). In 2003, he purchased an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (A.F.I.S.), which is located at the Forensics Lab's Fingerprint Identification Unit. In 2007 we completed a several million dollar renovation project of the entire laboratory facility.

In 2003, Prosecutor Forrest created a Technical Services Unit to assist with investigations throughout the County. A state-of-the-art surveillance vehicle, photographic and electronic surveillance equipment were all purchased mostly with grant monies. He also acquired a video enhancement system that enables us to enhance and print photographs obtained from surveillance videos. He also acquired a Computerized Suspect Identification System to aid in creating computerized composite sketches. The Technical Services Unit was also provided with a Global Positioning System (G.P.S.), which they install to assist in mobile surveillances.

Since 1997, Prosecutor Forrest has obtained several millions of dollars in grant monies. Through the use of grant monies, Prosecutor Forrest conducted regional town meetings throughout the County, which were aired on cable TV. These town meetings covered such topics as Internet Safety, Club Drugs and Gang Awareness. We also coordinated a task force of patrol officers for drunk driving and aggressive driving enforcement during certain holiday periods known as "Operation Safe Passage." We instituted a Gun Lock Give Away Program, a Child Safety Seat Installation and Inspection Program, and many other programs through grants. We created the Prosecutor's Office first computer website, www.scpo.net, which went online in October 2000. We also developed and published a series of informational brochures for the citizens of Somerset County. In 2003, through the use of grant monies, the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office hosted a trainer-to-trainer program for police officers and educators to be implemented in our schools and communities called "Character Counts."

In 2004, the first ever Crime Stoppers Program of Somerset County was created. However, this Crime Stoppers Program is somewhat unique, in that, in addition to providing rewards, they also offer scholarships to Alternate Route recruits at the Somerset County Police Academy, and grants for the purchase of certain law enforcement equipment and to fund new initiatives. They also utilize both a telephone TIPS Line at 1-888-577-TIPS (8477) and an online TIPS Line at www.888577tips.org.

In addition to being a career law enforcement officer, Prosecutor Forrest has also devoted a part of his long career of public service to education. He has taught at a number of police academies throughout the State and various colleges. Since 1992, Prosecutor Forrest also served as an Adjunct Professor at our County's College, Raritan Valley Community College, where he has taught Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Police and the Community, and Criminal Investigation. Prosecutor Forrest also established a criminal justice scholarship, which he solely funds by donating his salary from the college.