Mission Statement
The Manalapan Township Police Department’s mission is to work in partnership with the community to provide services, enforce the law, preserve the peace, reduce crime and the fear of crime and enhance the quality of life within our community.
Vision Statement
The administrative and operational philosophies and work processes of the Manalapan Township Police Department will involve every employee of the agency in an effort to continually improve public confidence by strengthening and expanding our partnership with the community, by maintaining and improving upon established professional standards and promoting personal and professional growth for our employees. The Manalapan Township Police Department will employ a process of self-evaluation and strive to follow best practices in law enforcement.
Values Statement
- Excellence – The Manalapan Township Police Department will strive to continually achieve and exceed the highest standards through our education, our training, our relationships with our community, our police recruitment and our overall performance. We do this to better serve our community. This level of excellence will contribute to the overall concept that Manalapan Township is a “Great place to live”.
- Professionalism – The Manalapan Township Police Department is committed to providing the gold standard of professionalism and service to our community by utilizing each officer’s skills, knowledge and judgement to ensure a level of conduct and demeanor that exceeds what our community expects from their police department. Our officers will go above and beyond in the performance of their duties and cement our department’s role as leaders in our community.
- Integrity – The Manalapan Township Police Department will serve our community with honesty, transparency, and impeccable moral principles from every officer in our police department, both on duty and on our time off. Our officers will maintain a strict adherence to the rules and policies set forth at the municipal, county, state and federal levels and conduct ourselves in a manner that leaves no questions regarding our remarkable trustworthiness and strong moral foundations.
The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) is an international body of Law Enforcement professionals who have established over 400 standards on all facets of law enforcement management, operations, and support functions that represent best practices for Law Enforcement.
Agencies then voluntarily enter the program to become accredited thereby demonstrating their commitment to professional excellence. In order to achieve accreditation agencies must ensure policies and practices meet the level of professional excellence prior to independent trained assessors evaluating the agency to ensure that they are in compliance with all of the standards.
Manalapan was the first municipal law enforcement agency in Monmouth County to achieve this recognition in March of 2010. Once accredited, an agency must maintain the same level of professionalism and is subjected to a re-evaluation by trained assessors every three years. In April of 2025, the Manalapan Township Police Department was re-certified by the New Jersey State Chief’s of Police Association as an Accredited Agency
Until 1970, the Township of Manalapan had police services provided by the New Jersey State Police. In April of 1970, Thomas Wallace was appointed as the first Chief of Police in Manalapan Township. At that same time, several other police officers from nearby towns formed the Manalapan Township Police Department, which was headquartered in “the barn,” located on Wickatunk Road, just off of Route 9. In 1975, when the State Police vacated the Tennent Barracks (now the Manalapan Senior Center), the newly formed police department moved their headquarters to the old State Police Barracks. The department remained in that building until the current municipal complex was built in 1983.
In 1990, with the retirement of Thomas Wallace, the first Chief of Police, Jimmie Potts, lead the department until 1997 when Jack McCormack became the third Chief of Police for Manalapan Township. When Chief McCormack accepted a position as the Director of the Monmouth County Police Academy in 2003, the leadership of the department was transferred to Chief Stuart Brown who ran the department until his retirement in December of 2010.
The department was led by Chief of Police, Louis Moreto from the retirement of Chief Brown until his retirement on May 1st, 2012. The department was then led by Chief Christopher Marsala, a 25 plus year law enforcement veteran of the department and resident of Manalapan Township, who retired March 31, 2016. Chief Michael Fountain retired on January 31, 2021, after serving with the department for 27 years. Chief Edward Niesz was sworn in on February 1, 2021. Chief Lenny Maltese was sworm in on February 13, 2025 and is the current leader of the 56 member organization.
The mission of the department to work in partnership with the community and to provide services, enforce the law, preserve the peace, reduce fear, and enhance the quality of life within the community remains the same.
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A 9/11 memorial will forever stand in the Manalapan municipal arboretum in honor of those who perished on September 11, 2001.
The memorial stands in front of the municipal building and features the 7-foot tall blue granite twin towers replicating the World Trade Center. A piece of a steel girder that supported Tower Two is placed in the footing of the memorial to support it, as it once did the World Trade Center.
The memorial, a replica of the World Trade Center’s twin towers, includes a wall engraved with the names of Manalapan residents who were killed in a terrorist attack on the United States on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
A polished black granite wall is engraved with the names of residents who were killed at the World Trade Center: Daniel T. Afflitto, Louis F. Aversano Jr., Steven H. Berger, Dominick E. Calia, James V. DeBlase, Salvatore A. Fiumefreddo, Salvatore Gitto, Christopher S. Gray, Thomas McCann and Joseph B. Plumitallo.
At the northern entrance of the memorial is a pentagon shaped fountain and a granite boulder representing United Airlines Flight 93. Attached to the boulder is a plaque honoring Patrick Joseph Driscoll, a longtime resident of Manalapan who was a passenger on Flight 93, which was hijacked out of Newark Liberty International Airport.
The memorial is the community’s tribute of remembrance to those who lost their lives on that tragic day.
We will never forget.