LaBruno Sworn In as Little Silver Police Captain [VIDEO]

For five and a half years, Carmen Gary LaBruno has been doing all the duties of a police captain in Little Silver. Now he has the title to go with the job.

LaBruno was sworn in as police captain by Mayor Robert C. Neff, Jr. at Tuesday evening before a crowd of friends and fellow police from surrounding towns.

Currently residing in Oceanport, LaBruno grew up in Middletown. He was hired as a Little Silver police officer in February 1990 and has served the community for nearly 22 years. He became a sergeant in January 2003, then a lieutenant in 2008. Now a captain, he is second in command to Chief Daniel Shaffery.

"We were without a captain for quite a long time, so he was doing the job as a lieutenant," said Shaffery.

The most recent captain, Stephen Greenwood, III, retired in 2008.

"For whatever reason, they just never made the promotion. There was a vacancy for quite some time. This council saw fit to make the promotion because we needed the promotion, and we were finally able to do it," Shaffery said.

With the promotion, LaBruno will receive a $6,258 yearly raise. A captain in the Borough makes $110,564 a year, while a lieutenant's salary is $104,306.

LaBruno said he has been performing the duties of an administrative lieutenant for more than five years, and Shaffery said his new role will not be much different, it is just a change in the police department's organizational structure.

"We have some issues with technology that the chief wants to move forward with and now that we have a clear chain of command, we can move forward with some policies and procedures that we hadn't had in place, said LaBruno.

Shaffery and LaBruno joined the force around the same time in 1990.

"He's right in line with what I want as far as my rank structure goes and what I want for the department as far as the command and the direction that we're going in," said Shaffery.

In addition to his administrative work, LaBruno said he has also been involved with traffic and safety, crime prevention, and engineering.