MANALAPAN – Three veteran officers in the Manalapan Police Department have been promoted to new positions and a Class II special officer has been hired as a full-time member of the force.
Capt. Edward Niesz said Detective Jared Aaronson was promoted sergeant, Detective Sgt. Peter Chalfin was promoted to lieutenant, and Lt. Leonard Maltese was promoted to captain.
Niesz said Aronson joined the police department as a dispatcher in August 2005. In June 2007, after graduating from the Monmouth County Police Academy, he was appointed to the Patrol Division. Aronson served in the Patrol Division until April 2013, when he was chosen to join the Detective Bureau. He remained a detective until he was promoted to sergeant on Feb. 11.
Aronson is a native of Manalapan. He is actively involved with the Gordons Corner Fire Company and has been on the Englishtown-Manalapan First Aid Squad. Niesz said that in his new position, Aronson will serve as an evening patrol supervisor.
Niesz said Chalfin graduated from the Ocean County Police Academy in 1996 and served with the Seaside Heights Police Department. He joined the Manalapan Police Department as a patrolman in October 1997.
Chalfin was promoted to sergeant in February 2015. He has served as the police department’s detective sergeant for the past two years and will be assigned as the evening shift watch commander.
Niesz said Maltese joined the police department in December 2003 after graduating from the Monmouth County Police Academy. He served as a patrolman until his selection to the Detective Bureau in 2009. He was promoted to sergeant in 2013 and became a detective sergeant in 2015.
Maltese was promoted to lieutenant in 2016 and served as a patrol watch commander. As a captain, Maltese will be assigned as the Administrative Division commander.
Niesz said Capt. Thomas Barstow recently retired. In conjunction with Barstow’s retirement, Mantas Stanionis was promoted from the position of part-time Class II special officer to full-time patrolman.
Stanionis was initially hired by Manalapan as a Class II special officer in December 2017. He is a 2017 graduate of the Ocean County Police Academy and worked as a Class II special officer in Seaside Heights before joining the Manalapan Police Department.