South Brunswick Police Gets $500K In Grant To Hire New Officers

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ – The South Brunswick Police Department has received a $500,000 grant to hire four new police officers, Police Chief Raymond Hayducka said.

The department received federal funding through Fiscal Year 2023 COPS Hiring Program. The grant is a competitive award program offered by the US Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office and is designed to provide funding directly to law enforcement agencies to hire additional officers in an effort to increase the department’s community policing capacity, crime prevention efforts, and outreach.

The federal award will support up to 75 percent of the new officers’ salary and fringe benefits for three years.

“We have a long history of excellent community outreach efforts. Our Citizen Police Academy, Youth Police Academy, National Night Out, and School Resource Officer Program are some of the outstanding efforts we hope to build on. It takes time and commitment to foster relationships that build partnerships,” Hayducka said.

In addition to the four officers hired under the grant, two other officers were recently hired to replace retired officers.

The new officers are set to start five months of basic training at the Cape May County Police Academy next week.

The new officers are Yash Shroff, 23, of Plainsboro; David Flanders, 29, of South Brunswick; Joseph Penney, 22, of South Brunswick; Haden Cascone, 22, of Belford, Tyler Steinfeld, 22 of South Brunswick, and Thomas Sites, 26, of Monroe. “I want to thank the Mayor, Council and Township Manager for accepting this Department of Justice funding. These efforts will allow us to increase our services and outreach,” Hayducka said.

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