Chief Robert Adams recently celebrated a quarter-century of service with the Collingdale Police Department. A 1978 graduate of Cardinal O’Hara High School, he began his career in law enforcement in 1980 as a part-time Collingdale police officer. At the same time, he worked as a store detective at the former Jefferson Ward Store and a part-time as a police dispatcher for Norwood Police Radio. He left Jefferson Ward in 1980 to take a job as full-time dispatcher for the Delaware County 911 Center, where he was employed until 1986 when he took the position of full-time dispatcher for the Springfield Police Department. On April 3, 1988, Adams was hired as a full-time officer with the Collingdale Police Department. 

One of his first assignments with Collingdale was　as a juvenile officer. Adams started the DARE Program in 1997 at Saint Joseph’s and Harris Schools. A member of the police department’s first bicycle unit, he made three DUI arrests while with the unit. In 1997 Adams was promoted to sergeant and assigned as the department’s criminal investigator. In 2002, he was became the first member of the borough’s police department to attend the prestigious National FBI Academy. In 2007, upon the retirement of Police Chief John Hewlings, Adams was appointed to head the borough police department, which now has eight full-time and 13 part-time officers.

Adams and his wife Linda are the parents of two daughters, both of whom attended Saint Joseph’s School in Collingdale, and graduated from Archbishop Prendergast High School and are currently students at West Chester University. "I was honored to celebrate my 25-year anniversary as a full time officer on April  4th 2013, "I have been truly blessed to work for a great community and look forward to many more years of service". 

Adams is a life member of Collingdale Fire Co. No. 1, a board member of the Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County as well as 1st Vice President of the Delaware County Police Chief's Association. He also serves as a board member for the Delaware County Hero Scholarship Foundation. Adams enjoys his time spent as an official for women’s high school varsity sports and is an assistant coach of the Cardinal O’Hara Varsity Softball team.