By Darran Simon
The Philadelphia Inquirer
GLOUCESTER COUNTY, N.J. — For two days in 1967, Glassboro police Capt. Philip J. Coppolino stood outside the Hollybush Mansion on the Rowan University campus, scanning the crowd, helping to provide security for the two world leaders holed up inside trying to defuse Cold War tensions.
The face-to-face encounter between President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin became known as the Glassboro Summit. It has been celebrated since by Rowan University — then Glassboro State College — and referenced in historical accounts.
“It was a highlight, something I remember,” said Coppolino, 85, who recalls shaking Johnson’s hand when the president’s helicopter landed.
It’s a story Coppolino, who retired as chief in 1984 and who still lives in town, has told frequently to relatives and others.
Now, organizers of a planned Gloucester County law enforcement museum hope to capture Coppolino’s recollections for an oral history exhibit.
The plan entails recording interviews with officers from some of the county’s 22 police departments, members of the county Prosecutor’s Office, and corrections officers about their careers, tales from their beats, and their memories of slain colleagues.
Visitors will be able to select audiovisual snippets from a menu and watch videos, according to Bernie Weisenfeld, a spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office who said he had already conducted a half-dozen interviews.
The Gloucester County Law Enforcement Educational Resource Center, as the museum is called, is slated to open temporarily in January at the Gloucester County College library.
It eventually will be permanently housed in the county Police Academy, also on the college campus, when an expansion is completed in the next year or so. A temporary display is in the lobby of the college center.
The museum will feature a variety of local police artifacts, including uniforms and a telephone radio from the 1950s as well as police log books from that period.
“We want everyone to be attracted to it, from children to active police officers, retired police officers, and their families,” said Joseph Getsinger, the county college’s executive director of safety and security and a member of the museum board.
The group so far has raised about half of the $25,000 needed to open the museum, said Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton, who suggested the idea.
Dalton said he had developed a deeper appreciation for the county’s law enforcement history since becoming prosecutor in 2002.
“I thought this was something that was important and that rich heritage should be preserved,” Dalton said.
He said organizers also hoped to spark an interest in law enforcement in college students.
Dalton said the museum would feature plaques commemorating fallen officers — a wall of honor, so to speak.
“I think it will be a focal point in the museum, reading about these officers,” Dalton said.
Since the 1930s, five officers have been killed in the line of duty in the county, including a state trooper who worked out of the Berlin barracks who was killed while serving a search warrant in Westville.
One of the fallen was Cpl. Steven L. Levy, 35, a decorated officer and volunteer member of the elite Gloucester County Critical Incident Team, the county SWAT team, who was shot in the face while responding to a domestic dispute in October 1999.
Monroe Township Police Chief John McKeown, who was leader of the incident team then and who trained Levy, said the slain officer was highly recommended and competitive.
Levy was assigned to carry the ballistic shield and often took a practice shield home to hone his skills, McKeown said.
“He wanted to excel at everything,” said McKeown, who will be interviewed about Levy for the oral history project.
On the October 1999 call, seven SWAT members entered a home in Woodbury after failed attempts to contact the occupant and fruitless efforts to drive him out with tear gas and pepper spray. Levy was at the front. McKeown was two or three officers behind him.
As the officers approached a bedroom door, Michael DeMore, 32, fired a sawed-off shotgun, blasting through the wood.
The team quickly pulled the wounded Levy to safety and he was rushed to a hospital, where he died.
It’s a tough thing to remember,” McKeown said.
Contact Darran Simon at 856-779-3829, dsimon@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter @darransimon.
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