BERKELEY – A chain of command is important in day-to-day police work, and it’s even more important when there’s an emergency. Not that anyone wants to think about another Superstorm Sandy, but part of planning for an event like that is having an Office of Emergency Management Coordinator step in.
Detective Michael Tier was sworn into that position at a recent Township Council meeting.
Detective Tier was born and raised in Berkeley, and graduated from Central Regional High School in 2003. He earned a bachelor’s of arts in history from Moravian College.
He joined the Lavallette Police Department in 2005 as a special officer. He graduated the Ocean County Police Academy in 2007 and went to work at the State Department of Corrections. He worked at the state prison in Trenton until coming back to work for Berkeley Township Police in 2011. He became a detective in 2015, focusing on financial crime, arson, and narcotics investigations.
He has procured funding for the department in the amount of $300,000 for emergency operations, officials said.
In 2012, Tier served as the Deputy Coordinator of response to Superstorm Sandy. In this capacity, he organized the re-entry of South Seaside Park residents to come home and for contractors to access closed off areas. The role of Deputy Coordinator also provided him with leadership roles during snowstorms, fires, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additionally, Tier serves as a major in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, and is assigned as a battalion operations officer for the 1-111th Infantry Battalion. He had two military deployments. The first was in 2009 as a reconnaissance platoon leader in Iraq. The second was in 2018 as a joint multi-national task force operations officer in Saudi Arabia.
The position used to be held by retiring Police Chief Karin DiMichele. Newly sworn Police Chief Kevin Santucci and Captain George Dohn will be the deputy OEM coordinators.
