SAYREVILLE – Five new officers have been sworn in to the Sayreville Police Department.
At a Borough Council meeting on Feb. 11, the oaths of office were administered to Patrolmen Peter Dufrat, George Lestuck, Joseph McMahon, Michael Valentin and Matthew Zebrowski.
Sayreville Police Chief John Zebrowski noted the new arrivals in the department occurred in conjunction with graduations from Cape May County Police Academy, Middle Township, which trains officers in New Jersey, and a contract involving the department being ramified.
“I see very much a packed house and a number of officers are here tonight,” Zebrowski said. “There are really two significant reasons for this. One of which is the introduction of a large group of officers who have passed the Cape May academy and are starting their careers with the Sayreville Police Department. The second is a ramification of a contract tonight.
“That [the ramification of the contract] is significant in the fact that it leads and breeds the continuity for our department,” he continued. “The officers I’m going to be introducing have done extremely well in Cape May. And what they are, they represent what I believe are some of the best at what we have in Sayreville. They’re done very well down there.
“They’re satisfying sometimes their lifetime goal of being a police officer and in certain cases, also their goal of following in their tradition of family members, particularly in Sayreville where you have two officers tonight following in their father’s footsteps,” the police chief said, with his own son Matthew being one of the officers joining the department that evening.
After the chief concluded his comments, each officer was individually sworn into the department by Borough Clerk Theresa Farbaniec.
Following the swearing in, the Borough Council passed a resolution authorizing the execution of the memorandum of agreement between Sayreville and PBA Local 98. Council President Daniel Buchanan and council members Kevin Dalina, Damon Enriquez, Victoria Kilpatrick and Dave McGill voted in favor of the resolution; Councilwoman Mary Novak abstained.