MONROE – With the retirement of Police Chief Michael Lloyd in June and Capt. Michael Biennas taking his place, there have been promotions in the Monroe Township Police Department.
Lt. Lisa Robinson was promoted to captain, replacing Biennas, who became police chief on July 1.
Sgt. John Strych was promoted to lieutenant and Officer Brian Burns was promoted to sergeant.
Officer Brian Dziomba was promoted to sergeant following the retirement of Sgt. Robert Bell in July.
The promotions took effect on Aug. 1.
“The Monroe Township Police Department is one of the most professional police departments in the state,” Mayor Gerald W. Tamburro said in a prepared statement. “Our police department has made us the safest city in Middlesex County and the fourth safest in the state. I wish all of the officers much success in their new positions.”
Robinson is a graduate of Monroe Township High School. She was sworn in as an officer in the patrol division on Jan. 1, 1997. She graduated from the New Jersey State Police Academy, Sea Girt.
In 1999, she was assigned to the detective bureau as a juvenile/Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) officer. In May 2005, she was promoted to sergeant and reassigned as Patrol Division shift supervisor.
In January 2009, Robinson was reassigned back to the detective bureau as a juvenile/DARE sergeant. She was promoted to lieutenant in 2014 and served as the police department’s public information officer. In July 2017, she was reassigned as Patrol Division commander, where she continues to serve.
Robinson served in the U.S. Army and the New Jersey National Guard. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Rutgers University and a Master’s of Administrative Science from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Strych is a graduate of Monroe Township High School. In August 1993, he was hired as a dispatcher for the Monroe Township Police Department, where he served until joining the Mantoloking Police Department in January 1997.
He was rehired by Monroe and assigned to the Patrol Division in September 1997. He was promoted to sergeant in 2014 and has been assigned as shift supervisor in the Patrol Division.
Strych earned an associate’s degree in criminal justice from Brookdale Community College.
Burns was sworn in as a police officer in August 2002. He is a senior officer in the Patrol Division, having served on multiple squads and under various supervisors, and has assumed the role of shift commander on many occasions during his 17-year tenure.
Burns earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Kean University.
Dziomba was sworn in as a police officer and assigned to the Patrol Division in August 2005. He was reassigned to the Detective Bureau in 2010 and specializes in fraud investigation and prevention.
He is also assigned to the Middlesex County Task Force, which is responsible for conducting investigations of individuals and organizations who traffic in drugs and guns, and/or participate in illegal gang activity.
Dziomba earned a Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice from Seton Hall University.
The Monroe Township Police Department comprises 62 sworn officers. The department consists of a detective bureau, a juvenile/youth services bureau, a domestic unit, a traffic safety bureau and has an officer assigned to senior citizen crime prevention.
The ceremonial swearing in ceremony for the four promoted officers will be held at the next Township Council meeting on Sept. 4.
