I want to begin by thanking Bob Mazur and Nitin Daniels for their efforts in putting together the training agenda of this year’s conference, as well as all the training that has been conducted throughout the past year.

     Since we began necessitating critiques after each train event to receive the certificate of attendance, we have gathered great feedback pertaining to both topics and speakers, thus helping the training committee to move forward in their selection of future topics for seminars and conferences. With that being said, the committee has already begun scheduling the speakers for next year’s conference and other training seminars planned for throughout the coming year.

    Our training committee works really hard at selecting both speakers and topics that they believe would be both beneficial and pertinent to law enforcement officers. Given that our members and attendees have different levels of experience and not every agency conducts the same type of investigations, or towards the same level of targets, they attempt to find a happy medium that provide both insight and direction to our attendees.

     Congratulations to the 2019 Prosecutor of the Year Award recipient Esther Suarez, the Hudson County Prosecutor, as well as Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal, recipient of the Law Enforcement Initiative Award for his role in beginning “Operation Helping Hand.” Also, congratulations to the numerous other recipients honored at this years Awards Luncheon, attended by approximately 600 individuals.

     Sweeping changes are in the works for the 2020 Awards Luncheon. We will be returning back to a format utilized back in the early days when the NJNEOA first began honoring individuals for their contributions in narcotic enforcement and those investigations conducted throughout the year. That means the process used for selecting next year’s investigative recipients will narrow down the number of recipients and awards given. We will truly be honoring the “Cream of the crop” next year.

     Lastly, I wish to thank all our members and their agencies, as well as those seminar and conference attendees for their continuous support throughout the year.