Lakehurst Police Promote Iain James To Lieutenant

LAKEHURST, NJ — Iain James, who has worked for the Lakehurst Police Department since 2004, has been promoted to lieutenant, the department's first lieutenant in 21 years, the borough police department announced.

James, a lifelong resident of Lakehurst, was promoted from sergeant to lieutenant on Sept. 17 in a ceremony attended by department members and his family.

"I want to congratulate Lt. James on his well-deserved promotion and wish him the best of luck in his new position," Police Chief Matthew Kline said. "Today was a great day for the Lakehurst Police Department. The department has nothad a lieutenant position within the ranks since 1999."

James started his career in law enforcement as a Special Class 1 Officer in 2004 with the Lakehurst Police Department then was hired as a Class 2 Special Police Officer in September 2007. He attended the Ocean County Police Academy Special Class 22, and graduated in June 2008 with the overall high academic award. He became full-time officer in October 2008, and was promoted to sergeant on April 21, 2016.

As a sergeant, he had a leading role in not only supervising the field training program for the department, but also adding information and fine-tuning the program.

James has made community policing one of his strong points throughout his career. He has organized and helped run community events such as the annual Bicycle Rodeo, the Christmas Toy Drive, National Night Out and youth recreation sports. He has also served as the D.A.R.E. Officer and school resource officer at the Lakehurst Elementary School.

He also is an active member of the Lakehurst Volunteer Fire Company, which he joined in 2004.

"I want to congratulate Lt. James on his well-deserved promotion and wish him the best of luck in his new position," Kline said. "Additionally, I want to thank Mayor Harry Robbins and the entire governing body for their continued support and seeing the need to re-establish the rank of lieutenant within the chain of command. Having such a supportive mayor and governing body is such a great feeling and the agency and myself are fortunate to have that. Without the continued support of the entire governing body, this would have not been possible."

Click here to get Patch email notifications, or get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our app. Download here. Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com Follow Manchester Patch on Facebook.