Town of Munster Indiana

Throughout 2025, the Munster Police Department has continued to expand its Community Oriented Policing Unit to include an additional School Resource Officer and a patrol officer who will assist with a variety of duties through the unit.

Officer Brian Bernardino attended Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) training and was assigned as the D.A.R.E./School Resource Officer at Elliott Elementary School, Frank Hammond Elementary School, and St. Paul's Lutheran School starting during the 2025-2026 school year.  He will also be assisting with running the annual Snowflurry and Cops & Kids holiday shopping events and will be available for station tours and safety talks throughout the year in addition to special events at those elementary schools.  Officer Bernardino's addition now brings the Munster Police Department to four total School Resource Officers.

Sergeant James Ghrist, who was promoted this year and will now supervise the C.O.P. Unit, will continue to serve as the D.A.R.E./School Resource Officer at Eads Elementary School and St. Thomas More School where he has taught for over 20 years.  In addition to supervising the School Resource Officers, he now assists with supervising the department's code enforcement officers, Volunteers in Police Service, and new traffic officers in the COP Unit (see below for further) and is still available for car seat assistance, station tours, home or business security surveys, or safety talks.  He also supervises the National Night Out Celebration, Crime Watch Program, Cops & Kids Event, Choice Community Council, and more.

Officer Kevin Cooley will continue to serve as the D.A.R.E./School Resource Officer at Wilbur Wright Middle School and K-9 Officer Brad Riemerts will also continue to serve as the School Resource Officer at Munster High School along with K-9 Skye, who is dual-trained as a narcotics-detecting and comfort dog.

The Munster Police Department has also added an additional member to the C.O.P. Unit, Officer Sarah Storm, beginning in August 2025.  She will be assisting with running directed traffic enforcement in areas of concern while also assisting with issues in our town's parks or around the new train stations.  In addition, Officer Storm will be regularly stopping in at our schools to help with providing additional police presence while allowing our town's children and teens to get to know another one of our police officers.  She looks forward to visiting with the students as much as possible when she is not on street patrol.  Our police department plans on adding additional traffic officers to the C.O.P. Unit as soon as staffing allows us to do so.

Our hard-working code enforcement officers, Kim Nordhoff and Holly Chalos, continue to assist with reported or observed violations in the residential areas pertaining to upkeep of property, out-of-state plate violations, animal concerns, and more.

Community Policing continues to be a priority at the Munster Police Department.  If you would like to volunteer with our Crime Watch or Choice Community Council programs, please call 219-836-6639.  If you would like to provide a code enforcement concern, please call 219-836-6650.  If you need to report a crime in progress or request an officer, always call 911.