MICHAEL ACKER The five new officers with the Sayreville Police Department, sworn in at the Feb. 25 Borough Council meeting, are (from left) Gabriel Lugo, Jose Arroyo, Rebekah Morales, Steven Maslowski and Brian Szkodny. SAYREVILLE – Five new members have been welcomed into the police force after enduring several months of training at the Cape May County Police Academy.
The newest patrol officers graduated from a 20-plus week training program at the academy on Jan. 24, according to Sayreville Police Chief Edward Szkodny. One of the five graduates, each of whomwas sworn in at the Borough Council’s Feb. 25 meeting, is Patrolman Brian Szkodny, the chief’s nephew and the son of Sayreville Detective Sgt. Raymond Szkodny.
Brian Szkodny, 28, amember of theU.S. Army Reserve, served a yearlong term fighting in Iraq. His uncle, the police chief, said the patrol officer is being activated again in April, this time for a 15-month tour. The other four new patrol officers are military veterans as well. They include Gabriel Lugo, 28; Jose Arroyo, 33; Steven Maslowski, 25; and Rebekah Morales, 26.
Lugo is a sergeant with the U.S. Army National Guard; Arroyo is a U.S. Navy petty officer third class;Maslowski is a corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps; and Morales is a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.
The new patrol officers have had multiple tours of duty in various operations, including Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Northern Watch and Operation Southern Watch, according to Sayreville Police Capt. Michael Burns. They served in combat zones in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Haiti.
Chief Szkodny said the police academy in CapeMay County submitted periodic reports of the candidates’ progress to the department for monitoring purposes.
“Their performance was very good,” he said. “The training is very extensive. They are evaluated on a daily basis. Everything they do in the training is monitored and evaluated, and any deficiencies are immediately corrected.”
Borough Councilman Rory Zach, who sits on the council’s Public Safety Committee, praised the new police officers at the Feb. 25 meeting, saying that the graduating class they were part of had one of the highest grade point averages in the academy’s history.
“They represented the Borough of Sayreville very well,” Zach said. “We have got a good group of officers.”
The academy offers housing for the trainees, who have to adhere to strict rules and training regimens, according to the chief.
“During the week, from Monday through Friday, they are totally involved in police training,” Szkodny said. “They have to maintain their living quarters to a high standard. It equates tomilitary-style training.”
The training is all-encompassing, the chief said, and it includes arrest procedure, domestic violence procedure, police vehicle operation, motor vehicle law, attorney general guidelines and restrictions and firearms training.
“They have to reach a certain score to qualify, and if they do not, they would be terminated from the academy,” Szkodny said. “The physical training is very, very enduring and tough.”
Each is tested periodically as they go through the training to make sure they are learning the skills of all facets of police work, he added.
“And, of course, they are required to maintain training materials. They have to maintain a notebook as their training progresses,” he said.
The training at the Cape May County PoliceAcademy has worked out well for the department since it started sending candidates there in recent years, the chief said.
“[Former Police Chief John] Garbowski started sending themthere when the State Police terminated the municipal police recruitment program,” Szkodny said. “The State Police in Sea Girt no longer trainmunicipal police.”
The graduates ultimately receive certification from the Police Training Commission, as long as the academy has met its required standards.
The new patrol officers are currently undergoing on-the-job training, in which they go on patrol with a seasoned police officer and enhance their knowledge of Sayreville, the chief said.