Toms River Honors Retiring Police Officer, Promotes Three

TOMS RIVER, NJ -- Toms River officials paused to honor a retiring police lieutenant and promote three officers Monday night at the Toms River Township Council meeting.

Toms River Lt. Richard Ross, who spent his 26-year career with the Toms River Police Department in the patrol division, was congratulated on his retirement. 

Ross, who has a degree in applied science from Atlantic Community College, also is a classically trained chef who worked in several restaurants in New York City and in New Jersey before joining the police department in 1990. He was a member of the department's Emergency Services Unit for 16 years, serving as a SWAT operator and a supervisor. He also was one of the founding members of the department's Dive Team, and is a firearms instructor at the Ocean County Police Academy. Ross and his wife, Valerie, have four children, according to the program provided for the ceremony.

Christopher Anderson, a 21-year member of the Toms River force, was promoted to lieutenant, replacing Ross as the evening shift commander. 

Anderson has been a patrol officer in the Operations Bureau, worked in the Information Technology Unit and an accident investigator in the Traffic Safety Bureau. Anderson, who was promoted to sergeant in 2008, has received several awards during his career but is most proud of arresting a hit-and-run driver in 2000 who hit Toms River Officer Daniel Schwester during a motor vehicle stop. Anderson, a graduate of Toms River High School East and Ocean-Kean College, started his career in 1994 with the Seaside Heights Police Department and worked for the Medford Lakes police department before joining the Toms River force. He and his wife, Colleen, have two children, according to the program. 

Robert Burczyk and Thomas J. Dugan both were promoted to sergeant.

Burczyk, who has a bachelor's degree in business administration from West Virginia University, joined the Toms River force in August 2001 and has spent his entire career in the Patrol Division. He serves on the Emergency Services Unit, the Color Guard Unit and is a certified emergency medical technician. Burcyzk also has served as a field training officer. He and his wife, Tracy, have been married for four years, according to the program.

Dugan, a graduate of Toms River North who has an associate's degree in criminal justice from Ocean County College and a bachelor's degree in business management from The Richard Stockton College (now Stockton University) was hired as a booking officer for the township's municipal jail in 1999 and hired by the department as a full-time police officer in 2000.  He has spent his entire career in the patrol division and serves on the department's Underwater Response Team. He is  bicycle officer and a field training officer. He and his wife, Sarah, have one child.

(Photos via the Toms River, New Jersey municipal Facebook page)