Borough P.D. to get two new recruits Hiring brings total up to the recommended 28 officers BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer METUCHEN - Two new police officers were sworn in at the Borough Council meeting last week, making the police force into what Police Chief James Keane and Capt. Robin Rentenberg called the department's "optimum" number of 28 officers. Keane welcomed and congratulated the two officers at the council meeting on April 16. "I'm glad we were able to hire the two new officers and I look forward to working with them," he said. Keith Swistock, 32, of Toms River, graduated from the Ocean County Police Academy in May 2006 finishing No. 1 in firearms training and second in physical fitness among his recruiting class. Swistock has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Kean University in Union. He worked as a Class II police officer with the Lavallette Police Department and as a corrections officer with the Atlantic County Correctional Facility. He graduated from Howell High School in 1993 and is married with two small children. Kevin Doherty, 27, of Metuchen, graduated from the Cape May Police Academy in January, where he won a boxing award among his recruiting class. Doherty has earned 65 credits from Middlesex County College in Edison toward an associate degree in criminal justice. He graduated from Metuchen High School in 1998. Swistock and Doherty, who started field training on April 17, were among eight potential prospects when the Borough Council voted to lift the full-time hiring freeze at the council meeting on March 19. "We were at a pretty bad place with 26 officers because we had one officer on light duty and another two were out," said Rentenberg. "So we didn't really have 26 officers. The two new officers will be in training for the next 10-12 weeks, and then they can go out on their own. It's good to know we are back to our full strength." Prior to the March 19 meeting, Mayor Edmund O'Brien proposed that the borough could hire one police officer now, in part due to a North Brunswick tax assessor who added 91 assessments for the borough after the county-mandated deadline, for free. He said the borough would propose to add the second officer after officials see what happens with the health insurance policy in April. Until the March 5 council meeting, the borough's Police Department was still grappling with the administration's decision in January to put a freeze on all open full-time positions, which brought the once-28-member Police Department down to 26 and became official on Feb. 5 with the resignation of Patrolman Don Heck, a 12-year veteran of the force. The council accepted Patrolman Timothy Hayduk's resignation Jan. 16. Hayduk had joined the force in February of last year.