MT. PENN, Pa.- It’s day two on the job for the new Central Berks police chief.
“It’s pretty surreal; it’s exciting though,” says Chief Justin Johnson.
Johnson is adjusting to his new leadership position at the Central Berks Regional Police Department after longtime Chief Ray Serafin retired.
“I think we’ve been one of the more successful ones over the years because some regional departments have disbanded over the years and we’ve kind of maintained,” said Johnson.
“We got through those growing pains and under Chief Serafin previously, he grew us to almost double the size of our department by taking on new areas with contracted coverage.”
Central Berks covers Mt. Penn, Lower Alsace, St. Lawrence and Oley and has a wide focus.
“There’s been an increase over the years in violent crime in the area,” said Johnson. “Mt. Penn has kind of seen its challenges with being so close to Reading that a lot of the crimes kind of filtered over, over the years.”
The incoming chief has experience in many areas like patrol, field training, and crash reconstruction.
Johnson spent his entire career at Central Berks Police Department, starting in 2001. It was in his 25th year that he stepped into the chief’s role.
“We have a good group of people here that everybody has their specialty, so I’m lucky in that sense,” said Chief Johnson. “I’m taking over a group that’s pretty established”
He says safety is paramount and he’d like to focus on more community policing initiatives.
“We kind of want to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the community. There’s been fractures over the years with how police are perceived and I kind of want to focus going forward to correct that a little bit,” added Johnson.