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Jersey City mayor names new public safety director, police chief
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Michael Sol Warren
Published Nov 10, 2026 at 4:36 p.m. ET
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Michael Sol Warren/Gothamist
By
Michael Sol Warren
Published Nov 10, 2026 at 4:36 p.m. ET
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Jersey City is getting new public safety brass next year, with a pair of new leaders that Mayor James Solomon said will continue the progress police have made over the past year.
Jocelyn Roldan will become the city’s acting public safety director in January, while Travis Ragland will take over as police chief in February. Roldan and Ragland will replace Anthony Ambrose and Robert Kearns, the current public safety director and police chief, respectively. Solomon said the new leaders will continue to push reform efforts spearheaded by Ambrose.
Roldan is the first Latina to step into the role, city officials said. She joined the Jersey City police in 2009 and rose through the ranks, spending time as commander of the division’s internal affairs unit. She's most recently been working as Ambrose’s chief of staff.
“She has spent her career holding this department to the highest standards, and she will lead it the same way,” Solomon said.
Jersey City’s Department of Public Safety includes the police division, fire division and office of emergency management. Much of Ambrose’s work since starting in January had been focused on changing how Jersey City police operate. He eliminated the use of fixed patrols and returned cops to walking the beat, he resurrected the city’s motorcycle police unit for traffic enforcement and he implemented a data-driven program to track police performance in Jersey City, similar to New York City's CompStat.
Ambrose is the only person to have led the police departments in New Jersey’s two largest cities, having previously run Newark’s public safety department, earning a reputation as a reform-minded leader for guiding that city’s police division through a federal consent decree process. He had pledged a similar transformation in Jersey City earlier this year.
“The Stone Age of the Jersey City Police Department is moving, starting today,” Ambrose said when he first started in March. “We are doing things differently. We're changing the way we do business.”
The early numbers on Ambrose’s Jersey City report card are promising. Crime has dropped across a number of categories so far this year compared to the same time period last year, according to city data. That includes a 40% drop in shots fired and a 47% decline in car break-ins.
“We've done a lot of good things,” Ambrose said.
Solomon praised Ambrose as having “delivered genuine change.”
“We were extremely lucky to have his leadership, his experience, and he was able to really create transformational change in a short period of time,” Solomon said.
Ambrose said he had only intended to be in Jersey City for three months; he said he stayed longer because he enjoyed the challenge and he liked the people he worked with in the city.
Current police chief Kearns announced he will step down in February. Kearns has served as chief since 2023.
“I'd like to think that I left Jersey City PD a little bit better than when I got it,” Kearns said, his voice cracking with emotion.
Ambrose praised Kearns for working with him on making changes to the city’s police.
“It's kind of hard when you want to move the furniture in the house you owned for a long time, and you have to move the furniture the way I was asking him to move it,” Ambrose said. “And he agreed, and he moved it, and he became a partner instantly.”
Ragland, the incoming chief replacing Kearns, became a cop in the city in 2005; he most recently served as the commander of the division’s traffic unit.
Ragland will be the city's second Black police chief, and its first since Walter Adams was appointed to the position in 1988.
Both Roldan and Ragland are Jersey City natives. City Council President Denise Ridley said she’s optimistic that their connections to the community will make them more effective leaders.
“Being a Jersey City native, growing up here, knowing the community, having community members recognize you and feel that they can trust you is an important part of this job,” Ridley said. “It helps to bridge that gap between community and our public safety department, and that is something that we truly need to make sure that we are focusing on.”
City Councilmember Michael Griffin echoed that.
“These are children of Jersey City,” Griffin said of Roldan and Ragland. “They grew up in these golden neighborhoods and now they're going to protect them, like they've done in the past.”
Solomon, Roldan and Ragland said they were committed to continuing the reform policies instituted under Ambrose, and making further changes to advance the same goals.
Roldan said she plans to grow the size of Jersey City’s police force, from its current size of 773 officers to around 900. Solomon said he supported that goal, and was committed to working with the city council to find the money for that growth even as the city faces a deep fiscal crisis.
Police staffing is a challenge in Jersey City, as new cops increasingly seek out departments that offer better starting pay and veteran officers leave the force. Ambrose estimated that over 100 officers will retire from Jersey City over the next three years.
Roldan and Ragland also said they planned to create new specialized units, similar to a dedicated domestic violence unit established under Ambrose.
“Acting Chief Ragland and I have discussed a robbery squad within the first 90 days, as well as an auto theft task force so that we can target specific crimes that are starting to plague the community,” Roldan said.
The new leadership is set to take over as the city starts to negotiate new contracts with police and fire unions, which have been out of contract for years.
Jack Collins, president of IAFF Local 1066, said the first round of contract talks are scheduled for this week. He said he’s optimistic that city leadership will come to the table in good faith.
The shakeup of public safety leadership comes after a string of high-profile exits from the Solomon administration. Jersey City’s finance director, deputy mayor for housing and corporation counsel all stepped down last month.
Tagged
Politics
new jersey
public safety
Michael Sol Warren
Michael Sol Warren covers New Jersey for WNYC and Gothamist, and previously reported on issues around the Garden State for NJ Spotlight News and NJ Advance Media. He can be reached at [email protected].
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