JACKSON – Four Township Police officers sporting protective masks related to COVID-19 requirements, joined friends, family, township officials and residents for a more public acknowledgement of their prior promotions.
Police Chief Matthew Kunz came out in dress uniform also sporting a mask to introduce the officers to Council President Alexander Sauickie, and councilmen Andrew Kern, Ken Bressi, Martin Flemming, and Stephen Chisholm and residents at the township council’s second live meeting held at Town Hall recently.
In front of fellow officers, wives, parents, children and relatives, the officers were introduced and their careers reviewed by the chief.
Newly promoted Capt. John Giovanetti was born and raised in Philipsburg. He graduated from Phillipsburg High School in 1991 and Ocean County College with an Associate Science Degree in Criminal Justice in 1993. He attended the College of New Jersey for Law and Justice and was hired by the township police department in July 1999. He graduated from the Ocean County Police Academy in May 2000.
Giovanetti served as a patrol officer on midnights from 2000 to 2007, as detective from 2007 to 2009 and was promoted to sergeant and assigned to the midnight shift from 2009-2015.
He also supervised the department’s communication center from 2015-2020 and during his career has served as a Special Response Team member for the department and on the Ocean County Regional SWAT Team North. He is the Municipal Counter Terrorism Coordinator for the department and works closely with Six Flags Great Adventure and the Jackson Outlet Village as the department’s liaison to both.
John McBride, who was promoted to lieutenant, was born and raised in the Bronx, New York City before moving to Howell where he lived from 1978 to 1987. He graduated from Monsignor Donavan High School in Toms River (now Donovan Catholic) and attended Brookdale Community College and Community College of the Air Force.
McBride served as a member of the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office from 1997 to 1999 and joined the Jackson Police Dept. in 1999. He has served as a patrol officer and field training officer and was promoted to sergeant in 2005. He was awarded the NJ PBA Valor Award Citation for exceptional police service with four other township officers following a Nov. 20, 1999 incident of disarming/arresting a suspect who had shot his wife. The woman was administered first aid and later made a full recovery.
Newly promoted Sgt. Frank P. Cipully moved to Jackson in 1988 and graduated from St. John Vianney High School and St. John’s University in NY. He was hired in August of 1995.
His assignments included the midnight shift in the patrol division from 1996 to 2003, as a DARE officer in 1998 and assisted the Jackson Board of Education in introducing and following “best Practices for School Emergencies” such as school shootings, bombings, fires and has made presentations to schools and local businesses.
Joseph Candido, who was born in Croatia and moved to Brooklyn NYC in 1968 and became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1976. He was promoted to sergeant and his family lived primarily in Lyndhurst until moving to Freehold in 1981 and in 1993 settled down in Jackson.
He graduated from Freehold Township High School in 1984 and attended college at LaSalle University graduating in 1988. He was hired by the Jackson Police Dept. in 1999 and attended the Burlington County Police Academy where he graduated third in his class in 2000.
Candido worked on the afternoon shift for the first half of his 21-year career and has been involved with the Police Explorers program and as a field training officer for new academy recruits.
Council President Sauickie said the occasion was long overdue. “Congratulations. During our time of COVID-19 our officers really have to operate under really extreme conditions. The officers we recognized tonight were actually promoted a couple of months back but with the restrictions we had, we were unable to give them the proper recognition that they deserve. It was great to get back to some normalcy tonight and to celebrate their achievements with their families.”
Bressi remarked “we have an elite police department. They are moving up in our police department and this is a salute to all of them. Keep up the good work”
“Congratulations to all the officers who were promoted. Certainly, they do a great along with the rest of our police department for the residents of Jackson and we are proud of all of them,” Chisholm said.
Resident Richard Egan, a retired New York City police officer, also congratulated the officers.
“Thank you for doing what you are doing.” He also thanked Councilman Flemming for remarks he made at the last council meeting supporting Jackson Police.
Egan noted that he knew an officer in New York City for 20 years “and in that time he had broken his hand five times, broken his collar bone, his arm and his elbow and he was shot, stabbed and was grazed by a bullet.”
“In addition to that he was responding to a call of a gas leak and a building exploded and sent his partner across the street and while he was injured, he ran into the building and saved 11 people. He also delivered four babies. At the end of his career he had made over 600 arrests and several medals of bravery. This goes on every day by thousands of officers in this country,” Egan added.
