MIDDLETOWN- The Middletown Township Police Department has promoted one officer and gained again another this summer.
Sgt. Kevin Gardiner and newly hired officer Thomas Foster took their oaths of office during a township committee meeting on Monday.
Gardiner joined the police department on July 16, 2001. During his career he has held various assignments in the patrol division, detective bureau, and worked undercover for the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. He has worked as a SWAT operator for the Middletown Township Police Department Emergency Response Unit (ESU) and the Monmouth County Emergency Response Team (MOCERT).
He has been assigned as interim sergeant on the midnight shift in the patrol division for the last year.
Gardiner served in the United States Marine Corps from 1991-1995. He then earned his bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies with an emphasis in law enforcement from Towson University in Maryland. After being hired by the department, he earned a master’s degree in public administration from Kean University. He has received numerous awards and achievements throughout his career.
Gardiner, who lives in Howell, is married with three children.
Foster was born in Hampton, where he still resides. He joined the United States Army in 2006 under the National Guard, where he served in Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2007 to 2008. He was honorably discharged in 2012.
After leaving the military, he attended and graduated from the Mercer County Police Academy in 2013. He started working for the Hunterdon County Sheriff’s Office last year.
He is attending Thomas Edison University.
