"George Elwin, who was murderously assaulted in his cabin home on the Warrenville road in the Watchung Hills two miles from here last Tuesday night, is still in a comatose state at Muhlenberg Hospital unable to shed any light on the mystery that surrounds the assault and robbery committed upon him," reported the Plainfield Courier News on April 17, 1909.

"Detective Totten of Somerville has spent three days in looking up clues that have developed nothing. Unless the old man recovers sufficiently to tell who his assailant was, no arrests will be made and the perpetrator of the crime may go unpunished.

"Elwin regains consciousness at periods of from five to ten minutes at a time, and while he seems to understand all that is said to him, he is unable to speak. The hospital authorities today tried to have him write the name of his assailant on paper, but this experiment proved futile.

"The assault upon Elwin has stirred the Watchung Hills frorn Warrenville to Bedminster and farmers living along the mountain range cannot understand how so many crimes are committed in that section and the criminals escape. Within the past six months two murders, one robbery and the murderous assault upon Elwin have been committed.

"John Bussi and his wife were attacked in their farm house near Warrenville early last fall and were beaten so badly that they died from the effects. Mrs. Bussi revived sufficiently to tell that a Negro had committed the crime, but he has never been captured.

"Two weeks ago a farmer living near the Passaic River was robbed of $1,200. Horse stealing and other depredations have been committed in that section to such an extent that a vigilance committee is about to be organized...."

When young George Williams was mysteriously shot and killed on the Coontown road in 1905, the County Sheriff and his detectives were called to investigate the crime. In 1918, after Mount Horeb farmer Fred Wiegand murdered his wife and buried her body in a cow path, county detectives unraveled the crime. Until 1921, when the New Jersey State Police were established, rural protection depended on elected county sheriffs and their tiny staffs of detectives, special deputies and prosecutors. Not that much protection was needed in Warren: Chicken and horse thievery happened occasionally, usually attributed to tramps; serious crime was a rarity. The two murders and several assaults reported by the Courier News in the 1909 article quoted above prompted calls for "a vigilance committee," but after the fright passed, nothing was done. From 1921 to 1972, what little police protection there was in Warren was officially the responsibility of the State Police operating out of barracks in Scotch Plains.

In 1933, after wandering tramps sent another scare through the town, Warren was moved to set up its own police force under the supervision of Recorder Frank Bennett. Harry Lawler, Roger Dealaman, Clarkson Wyckoff, Robert Mundy and John Smith among others patrolled the town in their own cars, paid 50 cents an hour plus gas mileage. Even this feeble effort was disbanded as an economy measure in 1939.

As the town's population grew, however, the public began demanding more police protection than the twice‑daily visit by a State Police car could provide. Ultimately, an auxiliary police force was established in 1950 as an arm of the Civil Defense Council and reorganized in 1968. By the early 1970s, the auxiliaries under the command of Captain Kenneth Reagan had a dozen volunteers patrolling the town in their own cars, mostly on weekends, as aids to the State Police.

Warren's "free ride," as the local newspaper called it, came to a screeching halt in 1970 when Gov. William Cahill announced that as of January 1st of the following year all towns with populations in excess of 7,500 would be charged for State Police protection. Within five years, he added, the State Police would withdraw its rural patrols entirely. Jolted into activity, Warren moved quickly to establish its own police department, swearing in Leonard Visotski, a 17‑year veteran of the Hillside Police Department, as the chief in April 1972. By 1973, the force was fully operational with 14 officers patrolling the town. A 25-member department protects the township today.