JACKSON – Four officers in the Jackson Police Department have been promoted.
The officers were recognized in front of family members and friends during a recent meeting of the Township Council.
Patrol officers Fred Meabe and Michael Friedman were promoted to the rank of sergeant. Sgt. John Convery and Sgt. John Giovanetti were promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
“Without these men and women (in the police department), we are in a lot of trouble,” Mayor Michael Reina said. “I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart.”
During the promotion ceremony, Police Chief Matthew Kunz recognized each officer.
Kunz said Meabe grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., moved to Jackson in 1986 and graduated from Jackson Memorial High School. Meabe began his law enforcement career in 1996. He worked as a corrections officer at the Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Facility in Bordentown. By 2001, he was hired to as a full-time officer in Jackson.
During his time in Jackson, Meabe has been assigned to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Special Operations Unit and has directed undercover narcotics investigations.
Friedman was born in Germany to a military family and later moved to Texas. He attended the Florida Institute of Technology before deciding to pursue a career in law enforcement.
Friedman moved to New Jersey and in March 2000 he was hired as a corrections officer at the Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Facility in Bordentown. He joined the Jackson Police Department in 2006.
Kunz said Friedman is an Ocean County certified drug recognition expert and an instructor for incident response in terrorist attacks.
Convery is a Jackson native and a 1985 graduate of Jackson Memorial High School. He graduated from Trenton State College in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.
Kunz said Convery worked as an Ocean County detention officer from 1987-89 and as a probation officer from 1989-97.
Convery was hired by the Jackson Police Department in 1997. He has served in a number of capacities and coordinates Jackson’s annual National Night Out event.
Over the years, Convery has trained almost 300 officers in Monmouth, Ocean and Burlington counties in how to investigate and prosecute incidents of elder abuse.
Giovanetti is a native of Phillipsburg who graduated from Phillipsburg High School in 1991. He attended Ocean County College and Trenton State College, graduating with a degree in criminal justice.
Kunz said Giovanetti worked as a security officer at Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, from 1993-98 and then in the security department at Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick. He was hired in Jackson in 1999.
Giovanetti has served on the police department’s special response team and with the Ocean County Regional SWAT Team and the Senior Burglary Task Force.
Following the promotion ceremony for the four men, Councilman Kenneth Bressi said, “When the public gets to hear the depth of the officers’ resumes, it shows just how deep and good our police department is.”
Police lieutenants in Jackson are paid between $140,236 and $147,779 and sergeants are paid between $125,210 and $131,945, according to the 2015 salary ordinance.