New Officers Welcomed, Promotions Congratulated

JACKSON – Township officials recognized both new hires and promoted officers of the township police department during a recent council meeting.

Jackson Police Department Public Safety Director Joseph Candido, assisted by Captain John Giovanetti announced the promotion of seven officers and introduced two newly appointed full-time police officers.

Lt. George Vidalis #251was promoted to the rank of captain. He was born and raised in Jackson and is a 1986 graduate of Jackson Memorial High School. He was appointed to the Jackson Police Department in December of 2003.

While spending the majority of his time in the Patrol Division he became an active member in a number of specialized divisions throughout the department including the department’s motorcycle unit. He is an emergency vehicle operator instructor and a firearms and rifle instructor.

In September of 2014, he was promoted to sergeant and was assigned to the patrol division and in February 2022 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and assigned the task of Division Commander of the Professional Standards & Internal Affairs Unit. He is currently assigned as the Investigations Services Division Commander

Sgt. Michael Friedman #262 was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. He was described as a “military brat” whose father served in the USAF and the Army. He was born in upstate New York at Plattsburgh Air Force Base and moved to New Jersey at age 2 before moving to Germany at age 7.

He spent 10 years in Germany before moving to Texas where he graduated from Gatesville High School in 1995. He then moved to Florida where he attended Florida Tech for two years before moving back to the Garden State in 1997.

Friedman started his career in 2000 as a Corrections Officer. In 2004 left the NJDOC to become a Federal Police Officer for the DOD Police on Fort Dix. In 2006 he was hired as Jackson police officer and assigned to the patrol division.

He was promoted to sergeant in October 2015 where he served as a shift commander on midnights and day shift. He is currently assigned as the Bravo/Charlie 2 Platoon Commander. He also serves as one of the agency’s municipal counter terrorism coordinators and was recently assigned to supervise the department’s dispatch center.

Sgt. Fred Meabe #230 was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. He was born in Neptune, before his family moved to Brooklyn. He returned to New Jersey and attended and graduated from Jackson Memorial High School in 1993.

Meabe began his career in 1996 as a Class II special for Jackson. He took a position with the New Jersey Department of Corrections in 2000 as a Senior Corrections Officer at the Albert C. Wagner State Youth Correctional Facility.

He was later hired as a full-time police officer with Jackson Township in 2001and has been assigned to all three shifts within the patrol division. He has also had the honor of being a field training officer, a Special Response Team member for both Jackson Township and the Ocean County Regional Team as well as being detached to the Ocean County Prosecutors Office Special Operations Group where he took part in numerous high profile narcotic investigations and arrests.

The officer received departmental awards including two Meritorious Police Service Ribbons and an Officer of the Year award. He was promoted in October of 2015 to the rank of sergeant and was tasked with being the Gang Intelligence Supervisor as well as a Public Information Officer for the agency, a position he currently shares with Lt. Friedman. He is assigned as the Alpha/Charlie 1 Commander.

Police Officer Jeff Henba was promoted to the rank of sergeant. He was born and raised in Jackson and is a 1999 graduate of Jackson Memorial High School. He attended Ocean County College where he received his associate’s degree in criminal justice.

He worked for Mantoloking Police Department as a Class 2 Officer from 2001 until 2004, where he was then hired full time at Mantoloking.

On April 17, 2006, he was appointed to the Jackson Police Department and spent the majority of his time in the Patrol Division and moved into the Traffic Safety Division in January 2023 where he is currently assigned. He received multiple unit citations such as the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) in 2011 and the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety Award for most DWI arrests in Jackson that same year. He was Officer of the Year in 2016 and is a two-time PBA member of the year.

Henba served on the PBA executive board for several years and most recently as the PBA president for the past three years and is an active member of the community, participating in numerous charity events benefiting worthy causes.

Police Officer Michael Basso #284 was promoted to the rank of sergeant. He is a long time township resident, graduating from Jackson Memorial High School in 2008. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, serving four years on active duty and was a volunteer firefighter with the Jackson Mills Fire Company before being hired by the Jackson Township Police Department in 2015.

Basso served as a field training officer, Special Response Team operator, counter-terrorism coordinator, police explorer post advisor, honor guard commander, physical training instructor, Memorial Day parade coordinator, PBA veterans’ liaison, and is a member of the elite bike unit.

Police Officer Michael Cocchiara was promoted to the rank of sergeant. He graduated Jackson Memorial High School in 2013.

Cocchiara was a police explorer for the Jackson PD and rose to the rank of Chief within the program. This was while he attended high school and college at Ocean County College where he majored in criminal justice.

He was hired as a Class I Special Police Officer for the Bradley Beach Police Department. While working for this agency, he enlisted in the United States Army Reserves as a Military Policeman and eventually deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Cocchiara now holds the rank of sergeant in the Army Reserves and had transitioned to a new position as a Counterintelligence Special Agent which is another law enforcement position giving him the ability to investigate national security crimes. He was hired by the Jackson PD in 2016 and served in the Uniformed Services Division in the patrol capacity before being loaned to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as a Task Force Officer in 2023. He participated in high-level drug trafficking investigations which resulted in multi-kilo seizures.

He also investigated matters regarding the welfare of animals as a certified Humane Law Enforcement Officer and was assigned to the Bicycle Patrol unit, and held an advisor position for Law Enforcement Explorer Post 168.

Police Officer Robert Gravina #298 was promoted to the rank of sergeant. He is a Jackson Liberty High School graduate, class of 2011.

From 2015- 2018 Gravina worked for the New Jersey Department of Corrections before he was hired by the Jackson PD in 2018. During his time with the department, he was a field training officer, vice president of Jackson PBA 168, served in the department’s PBA Honor Guard, and has received specialized crash training and is in the departments part time Traffic Safety Unit.

Gravina received multiple departmental awards to include a lifesaving award.

Newly hired police officer Bradley Bonito #353 has been with the Jackson PD since November 2023 as a Class II Special Law Enforcement Officer and has over two years of Law Enforcement experience. He was born in Freehold Township, and graduated from Freehold Township High School in 2020.

The officer is currently attending Stockton University to receive a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice with a concentration in Homeland Security. While attending Stockon University, he was a member of the Division III Stockton University Track and Field Team.

Bonito was previously employed by the Avon-by-the-Sea Police Department as a Class I and Class II Special Police Officer from October 2021 to November 2023.

Police Officer Trevor Fox #354 started at the department in November of 2023 as a Class 2 Special Law Enforcement Officer with previous experience in Long Beach Township. He grew up in Barnegat where he graduated high school in 2020.

He worked in the electrical trades for three years before beginning his career in law enforcement at the Long Beach Township police department as a class 1 Special Law Enforcement Officer and completed one summer as a Class 1 officer and then joined Ocean County Academy Special class 52 graduating in May of 2023.

With this round of new hires the total number of police officers is 109.