SAYREVILLE – Four new sergeants and one new lieutenant have been promoted in Sayreville.
At the Borough Council’s Sept. 23 meeting, five officers in the Sayreville Police Department were officially sworn in to new positions. John Kwitkowski was sworn in as a lieutenant; and Michael Theile, Daniel Ellmeyer, Sean McGrath and Michael Cinardo were sworn in as sergeants.
“Tonight’s a great night,” Council President Daniel Buchanan said. “Some of our officers are moving up the ranks and we have the honor of swearing them in to their promotions.”
Before the five officers were officially promoted, Sayreville Police Chief John Zebrowski said, “The New York Giants won a football game [yesterday]. How did they do it? They did it with a big change. A big institutional change in the way that the football team had been operating. They changed their quarterback. And at least for one game, what happened? A lot of excitement, and all of a sudden, the team played a little bit better in a big win. I’m a Giants fan, so it was a great day for me. But today, I am a Sayreville fan, as I am every day, so I’m a fan for you all today in the institutional change that’s been taking place in the Sayreville Police Department for quite some time too, with the assistance from our Borough Council.
“Over the last couple years, we’ve changed and re-positioned officers to better serve the public,” Zebrowski continued. “We have seen a change in the table of organization again because we had to make right decisions for the town and over the last couple of years, the last 18 months in particular, we lost an awful lot of mature officers and we’ve brought in many new officers as well. Part of that is the change in our chain of command. Our supervision. And you’re seeing some of that tonight.
“One of the greatest things about the department in these changes is, first of all, change is not a bad thing – particularly if the change helps, and in our case, it certainly did. And change does make for excitement. I have to tell you, I think our hallways buzz a lot more than they have in the last couple of years and nothing fell apart, everything went really well. The cool part about this change and excitement that we see is the officers doing their own thing the Sayreville way. So although they’re replacing some icons, some people who we thought were irreplaceable and certainly personality and character wise they were, in their positions, they have come in and they’ve really done a fantastic job.
“The officers who you’re [the public] going meet tonight and you’re going to congratulate as we swear in have been in these positions already for some time and I have to tell you, they’re making a great addition and they’re making great difference for the Borough of Sayreville. Not simply for the Borough of Sayreville, but also for the men and women who serve under them,” the police chief said.