Retired Captain Mulling Run for Sheriff

A retired captain of detectives with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office is considering a run for county sheriff, a post held by Armando Fontoura since 1990.

“It’s time for a change in the way the sheriff’s office conducts business,” said John Arnold Jr., who has worked in Essex law enforcement for more than a quarter century.

Arnold, a married father of four, has formed an exploratory committee that’s researching the viability of a run. He plans on making a decision after the Christmas holiday, his campaign said.

Fontoura’s current three-year term expires next year.

After serving in the Marines, in 1985 Arnold joined the campus police force at the University of Medicine and Dentistry, then became a detective with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, where he worked a variety of assignments, including narcotics, major crimes, homicide and with the Essex-Union Auto Theft Task Force, among other posts. Arnold was the first African-American named lieutenant in the ECPO’s homicide division and, later, the first to be named commander of the division, in 1999. A 1983 graduate of Science High School in Newark, Arnold holds a degree in biblical theology.

Arnold, whose father, John Arnold Sr., was a Newark police lieutenant, said his decision to enter law enforcement was influenced by family tradition.

“My father was a highly decorated police lieutenant. Just coming up as a little boy I always saw what he did, trying to make a difference in the community,” said Arnold, a fifth-degree black belt in karate. “The stories of good versus evil, I was drawn to that as a child....[law enforcement] was already in my blood.”

Arnold, who would seek election next year for a three-year term as head of one of the state’s larger law enforcement agencies, said he would work to make the department “more diverse, to reflect the community” it serves. Arnold also would beef up what he considers an underused resource, the department’s deputies, volunteers who undergo police academy training and augment the paid force.

“The sheriff not only has the power to hire among the civil service, he has the power to appoint deputies,” said Arnold, who believes such officers can augment a county-wide community policing effort. “There are a lot of people who would like to be involved in law enforcement.”

Arnold’s campaign said that another goal would be to raise the profile of the sheriff’s office, which is responsible for a variety of functions, including patrols, the bomb disposal unit, a narcotics task force, and serving as court officers for the state’s largest county court system. The county police force was folded into the sheriff’s office in the late 1990s.

According to Arnold’s polling research, however, “95 percent” of county residents do not know who the sheriff is or what the department does.