Police Deputy Chief, Captain, Sergeant Honored At Retirement In Brick

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township Police Department bid farewell to three officers on Monday on their retirement from the force.

Deputy Police Chief Steven Gerling, Capt. Terrence Covert and Sgt. James Kelly took their final walks down the ramp from the municipal building after lengthy careers serving Brick Township, receiving commemorative plaques from Chief David Forrester as friends, family and fellow officers and township employees looked on.

Also in the crowd were former Police Chief James Riccio and Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer, paying their respects to the trio of officers.

Each of the officers did a final sign-off call on the radio after taking the walk down the ramp.

Gerling, who was promoted to deputy chief in December 2022, retired after 30 years of service. He was hired by the township in January 1995 and was a graduate of Richard Stockton College and the Ocean County Police Academy. He was a patrol officer for 12 years and a field training officer, and was a K9 handler with his K9 partner, Cody.

Gerling was promoted to sergeant in March 2006 and worked the evening shift and later the day shift as a squad supervisor and the K9 Unit supervisor. He was promoted to lieutenant in January 2014 and was the evening shift commander until 2016, when he became the Professional Standards Unit commander in the Administrative Services Division. In 2017 he moved back to the Operations Division and was the evening/midnight shift A Side commander, then became the A Side shift commander in February 2018. He was promoted to captain and became the Operations Division commander in December 2018.

Covert, who was promoted to captain in 2022, retired after 27 years of service. He joined the department in 1997 and served in various roles including field training officer, school resource officer and as a member of the Special Emergency Response Team. Covert was promoted to sergeant in 2005 and became a supervisor for the motorcycle and bicycle units. In 2007, he was assigned to the Detective Bureau and became a supervisor of the Drug Enforcement Unit. The following year, he graduated from the DEA Drug Unit Commanders Class #61 in Quantico, Virginia. In 2012, he was promoted to lieutenant and became the Deputy SERT commander. He graduated from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia and was promoted to captain in 2022.

Kelly joined the Brick Township Police Department in 2006. In July 2015, he was promoted to sergeant and was assigned to the bicycle patrol unit to combat issues within the Maple Leaf Apartment Complex through high-intensity interaction with the families and residents in that community. He was an instructor in various capacities, including at the Ocean County Police Academy, and worked with the Ocean County Health Department to create a training curriculum for police response to substance use disorders. Kelly continues to teach at several agency training academies, specializing in cultural diversity, crisis intervention, officer wellness, and the constitutional powers of police officers. In 2020 Kelly earned his master resiliency trainer certification and became a resiliency police officer, and worked with the Attorney General's Office in rolling out an officer wellness and resiliency program that involved getting every officer in the state of New Jersey trained in resiliency. In 2021 Sgt. Kelly earned his training certifications for two other Attorney General statewide initiatives aimed at training every NJ officer in Tactical Communications for people in crisis (ICAT) and bystandership intervention for police officer accountability (ABLE). Kelly returned to the patrol division at the end of 2023 as the department's senior sergeant, where he finished out his law enforcement career working with the uniformed division.

Here are more photos from the celebration: