Auxiliary, special police earn award for service
BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer

OLD BRIDGE

OLD BRIDGE - The Old Bridge Police Department recently honored two of its longest-serving police officers for their 50 years of service.

Police Chief Thomas Collow presented 50 years of service awards to Special Police Officer Bernard Cohan and Auxiliary Police Officer Deputy Chief George Greico at the annual police recognition ceremony May 20.

"In my 30 years, they have been the constant," Collow said. "They are extremely helpful."

Greico, 85, is still active with the auxiliary police and Cohan, 77, remains a special police officer and does traffic assignments from time to time. Collow said that their historical perspective is an asset and they are only a phone call away when he needs information.

"They have so much knowledge," Collow said.

Greico has been an Old Bridge resident since 1955, when he moved out of his city of birth, Newark. He started out as an auxiliary police officer in Newark, but he soon joined the auxiliary police in Orange after Newark dropped the program.

Greico and his wife were living in an apartment in Newark before they moved to Old Bridge. They have four children, nine grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren.

"There is another great grandchild due any day now," Greico said.

Before his move to Old Bridge, Greico served in the Army for three years during World War II. He also served with the National Guard after the war.

Greico moved to the Marlboro Road area of Old Bridge initially, and he now lives in the Madison Park section of town. He started out as an auxiliary officer before joining the special police force.

Cohan said that special police officers in New Jersey are sworn in and they have full powers of arrest, but only class two special police officers are permitted to carry a gun. Auxiliary police are reserve police who are not sworn in and do not have powers of arrest, he added.

Greico said that he was an auxiliary police officer while he was a special police officer, but he is now only with the auxiliary police. He added that he is now deputy chief of the auxiliary police.

"I worked my way up," Greico said.

Greico recalled a large fire at the former Nike Missile Base that firefighters contained on Route 9. He noted that the highway had to be shut down, because heavy smoke covered the area.

Greico also said that he remembers dealing with flooding issues on Route 35, as well as what is now known as Route 516.

"When I first joined, there were 11 cops [in Old Bridge]," Greico said.

Cohan also said that the police department was significantly smaller when he started out than it is now.

"Back in the old days, I was sworn in as a special officer on January 1, 1958," Cohan said.

In addition to his work as a special officer, which included work on homicides and traffic accidents, Cohan said that he had another full-time job. He worked at a post office in South Amboy from 5 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and then he would go to work as a special police officer from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. after he slept in the afternoon, he said.

"I worked full time at the post office and full time with the police department for 11 years," Cohan said.

Cohan also served as a fire marshal in district two. He said that he hated to leave, but had to by mandate when he was 65.

Cohan recalled a fire that happened on a Christmas Eve in Laurence Harbor in the early 1960s.

"We had a very bad fire in Laurence Harbor on Christmas Eve and five people were killed. Because I was a special police officer and a fireman, I had to bring most of the bodies out," Cohan said. "That affected me for a long time."

Cohan was born in New York City and moved to Laurence Harbor from Weehawken in 1936. His parents enrolled him at St. Mary Elementary School, South Amboy, as a youth and today he lives in Society Hill off Route 516.

Cohan noted the difference between the town now and when he started out as a special police officer. He said that Old Bridge, which was known as Madison Township at that time, was made up of 5,000 people, as opposed to its current population of over 65,000.

Cohan said that in his earlier years with the special police force, he had to get a 350- pound pig out of the roadway. He added that his wife still laughs about that story today.

Cohan and his wife have been married for 55 years and have five children and six grandchildren.

"The best day in my life was when I married my best friend and sweetheart, Elaine," Cohan said.

Collow said that he has the utmost respect and admiration for the decades of service that these men have given to Old Bridge.

"They are good people dedicated to this township," Collow said.