The Lower Makefield Township government building was filled to capacity Wednesday night as the Board of Supervisors hosted a retirement ceremony for our longstanding Chief of Police, Ken Coluzzi. Not only was every chair in the room filled, but people were standing two deep along the walls and the rear of the room was standing room only for uniformed police officers, fire fighters, rescue squad, and other first responders.
The crowd even spilled into the lobby of the building. So many citizens, friends, family, and government officials came to honor Chief Coluzzi that LMT’s Deputy Chief Bob Lewis, the man who will be assuming his duties while the town searches for a new Chief, had to stand in a doorway.
Chief Coluzzi served Lower Makefield Township with honor and distinction for 24 years of his 48-year career as a police officer. And the impact of that service was on full display last night.
When Coluzzi arrived in October 2000, he had already led a distinguished career in the Philadelphia Police Department, serving as one of the early members of the city’s collaboration with the US Marshall’s Dangerous Fugitives task force. He had headed the Special Investigations Unit and led the FBI’s Federal Fugitive Task Force.
In the 1990s, Coluzzi was a regular face in Philadelphia-area living rooms as he appeared on the ActionNews Crime Fighters Reports. His firm but quiet voice was a regular assurance to the people of Philadelphia that the Police Department was hard at work to keep them safe.
During last night’s ceremony, Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn spoke of his impact on the people of the city. She grew up in Philadelphia and knew then-Commander Coluzzi through his media appearances. Schorn shared her own personal experience of being a young woman in the city in the 1990s, when the Center City rapist was actively terrorizing young women in Philadelphia, and celebrated Ken Coluzzi as the officer who led the investigation to capture this violent criminal.
The stories of his service to Philadelphia are remarkable and remind us how lucky Lower Makefield Township was to have such an accomplished and humble public servant as the leader of our small-town police force.
Chief Coluzzi was celebrated for this service to the township by State Senator Steve Santarsiero, a long-time resident of Lower Makefield Township, who spoke of how Coluzzi had led LMT through periods of significant change in his time here. The state senator highlighted the immense challenge that Chief Coluzzi faced in September 2001, not even a year into his role leading our police force, when faced with the myriad challenges associated with September 11 terrorist attacks.
The impact of these attacks on Lower Makefield Township were both significant and traumatic. Eighty-two Bucks County residents lost their lives in the worst terrorist attack on US soil, while the county’s ties to New York City means that countless others lost friends and family in the tragedy.
Chief Coluzzi not only had to lead investigative efforts to help federal, state, and city officials in New York in their search and recovery efforts, but also to put protections in place for our public utilities, adapting immediately to the new normal of a community under threat from foreign actors. All of this while he and his force had to help a grieving community through one of the darkest periods of our history.
Too many times in his 24 years of service to Lower Makefield Township, the Chief had to fill this role. As counselor not only to a town enduring tragedies, but to the men and women of his force who are among the first to be confronted with the grief and loss that we ask our police to endure for us on a daily basis. As recently as in the aftermath of the October 7th terror attacks in Israel, Chief Coluzzi was a leader not only in our township but in Bucks County as well, immediately stepping up patrols of our synagogues and other Jewish houses of worship.
Through it all, his steady leadership and stalwart character kept our community safe and our police force staff with honorable, dignified public servants that do their work with integrity and pride.
Chief Coluzzi was honored by his fellow members of the Bucks County Police Chief’s Association, representated by MIddletown Township Chief of Police, Joseph Bartorilla. He was recognized and thanked for his service by State Representative Perry Warren, U.S. Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, and by County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia. Letters of congratulations on his retirement were delivered by the US Marshall’s Service and the United States Secret Service.
Special Agent Josh Reed from the Philadelphia field office of the FBI attended personally to thank the Chief for his department’s years of support of the FBI’s efforts to keep our community safe. County DA Schorn praised the Chief’s efforts to bring the opioid anti-overdose medication Naloxone to Bucks County, an effort which has saved hundreds of lives locally.
[Police Chief Ken Coluzzi reflects on his career amid his retirement – NBC 10 Philadelphia]
Representatives from the Yardley-Makefield Fire Company, led by President Larry Newman, were on hand to extends their thanks as well for Chief Coluzzi’s decades of partnership. And two-decades worth of former Township managers and supervisors either came in person or joined remotely to praise the Chief for his steady leadership and friendship.
New members to the Board were traditionally sat next to Chief Coluzzi on the dais in the Township Meeting Room. Having sat in that chair, myself, I can tell you that the ability of newly elected or appointed officials to lean over and get perspective and advice from a public servant with the Chief’s decades of service was invaluable.
The Chief’s mark on Lower Makefield Township is impossible to capture in one single column. But it has been profound, in ways both large and small. His is an exemplary career that shows our community what public service is, shows our sworn officers what leadership is, and reminds us all that a life well-lived by high standards has its own rewards.
Thank you, Chief Coluzzi, and go enjoy your retirement with the thanks of a grateful community.
