Five Join the Ranks of Manchester’s Finest

Three new full-time Manchester police officers and two special officers begin their law-enforcement careers this week.

Kyle Rickvalsky, Matthew Walaszek, and Michael Steffen II took their oaths as patrolmen. Daniel Wehrle, Jr., and Thomas Chant were sworn in as Class II special officers.

Rickvalsky graduted Southern Regional High School in 2009 and earned his Associate's degree in General Studies at Ocean County College in Toms River. His training at the Ocean County Police Academy in Waretown led to his first assignment as a special officer in Long Beach Township.

Walaszek got his diploma from Manchester Township High School in 2009 and passed muster at the Ocean County Police Academy in 2012, then worked as a special officer in Point Pleasant Beach and Lakehurst.

Steffen is a 2006 graduate of Bordentown High School with degrees from Mercer County College and Richard Stockton College, where he was a Dean's List graduate in Criminal Justice and Forensics. He arrives in Manchester from a term as a Mercer County Park Ranger and enters the Ocean County Police Academy this week.

Wehrle graduated Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft in 2003 and earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Drew University in Madison in 2007. He was a marketing executive until joining the Point Pleasant Beach police department in 2012.

Chant is a 2006 alumnus of Toms River High School South who earned a B.A. in Communications from the University of Delaware in 2010. After completing training at the Ocean County Police Academy, he signed on as a special officer in Seaside Heights and briefly served as a full-time officer in the Camden County Metro Police Department.

Manchester Mayor Michael Fressola administered their oaths at the township's Municipal Complex Monday. Police Chief Brian Klimakowski, Township Council President Craig Wallis and other municipal workers joined family and friends for the ceremony

Each new officer now undergoes 12 weeks of field training.