JACKSON – The Jackson Police Department has promoted three men to the rank of sergeant and hired three new officers.
During a Jan. 30 a ceremony at town hall that was attended by friends, family members and fellow officers, Officer Larry Logan, Officer Arthur Salisbury and Detective Mitch Cowit were advanced to the rank of sergeant.
According to the police department:
- Logan has been a police officer in Jackson since 1999 and has served in the Patrol Division on the afternoon and day shifts. He is a U.S. Army veteran. He holds a degree in business administration from the University of South Dakota.
- Salisbury has been a police officer in Jackson since 1995. He is a U.S. Army veteran. He has served on multiple patrol shifts. He investigated juvenile incidents as a detective from 2002-06, worked as a school resource officer from 2006-10 and served on the police department’s Special Response Team from 1996 to 2003.
- Cowit started his law enforcement career as a Class II special officer with the Jackson Police Department and was then hired as a full-time officer in another community. He joined the Jackson Police Department full-time in 1992. Cowit joined the Detective Bureau in 1996. He has been a member of the department’s Special Response Team, a hostage negotiator and the police department’s designated bias investigator. He is an instructor at the Ocean County Police Academy. Cowit was most recently assigned to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office and was involved in numerous narcotics investigations throughout the county.
According to a press release from the township, Logan, Salisbury and Cowit will be assigned to supervise squads in the Patrol Division.
The new hires in the police department are:
- Officer Kevin Kleinknecht, who joined the agency as an intergovernmental transfer from the Manasquan Police Department. He graduated from Jackson Memorial High School and attended Brookdale Community College and Stockton University. Kleinknecht graduated from the Monmouth County Police Academy and has served as a patrol officer in Manasquan since 2015, prior to transferring to the Jackson Police Department.
- Officer Thomas Conti, who graduated from Jackson Memorial High School and attended Ocean County College. He has served as a special officer in Seaside Heights and Jackson. He will become a full-time officer in Jackson.
- Officer Derek Thomason, who was a Jackson Police Explorer as a teenager and graduated from Jackson Liberty High School. He has served as a special officer in Point Pleasant and Jackson. He was a full-time officer with the Robbinsville Police Department before returning to the Jackson Police Department.
The new hires are in training and riding with field training officers. When they complete the field training program, they will be assigned to a patrol squad, according to the press release.
The hiring of Kleinknecht, Conti and Thomason bring the police department to 89 sworn officers to serve the 100-square-mile township and its approximately 60,000 residents. The police department was at its highest staffing of 90 officers in 2008.
Police officials said, “We would like to thank Mayor Michael Reina, the Township Council and the police administration for their continued support and commitment to staffing and supervision within the department so the agency is better prepared to serve residents and visitors to the township as we look forward to the future and several large projects which will bring more residents to the community.”
