LAKEHURST – Family, friends and fellow officers of the borough police department recently observed the promotion ceremony of Sergeant Iain James to his new rank of lieutenant.
His promotion ceremony was held during the most recent borough council meeting. His oath was administered by Borough Attorney Ian M. Goldman as his wife and children joined him.
“I want to thank you for this opportunity and Chief (Matthew) Kline for his support and leadership and the officers of the Lakehurst Police and staff for their support,” the new lieutenant said.
Chief Kline spoke about James’s promotion saying, “Today was a great day for the Lakehurst Police Department. The department has not had a Lieutenant position within the ranks since 1999 (21 years).”
James began his career in law enforcement as a Special Class 1 Officer in 2004 with the Lakehurst Police Department. He was hired as a Class 2 Special Police Officer by the Lakehurst Police Department in September of 2007 and attended the Ocean County Police
Academy Special Class #22, where he graduated in June of 2008 with the overall high academic award.
He was hired as a full-time police officer in October of 2008 by the Lakehurst Police Department and was promoted to the rank of sergeant on April 21, 2016. His most recent promotion became official as of September 16.
Lieutenant James has been extremely active in the community throughout his career with Lakehurst. He has made community policing one of his strong points throughout his career and has organized and helped run community events such as the annual Bicycle Rodeo, the Christmas Toy Drive, National Night Out and youth recreation sports.
The officer has also served as the D.A.R.E. Officer and School Resource Officer at the Lakehurst Elementary School. Lt. James was also a Field Training Officer.
As a sergeant, he had a leading role in not only supervising the Field Training program for the Lakehurst Police Department, but also adding information and fine tuning the program.
James is a lifelong Lakehurst resident and is also an active member of the Lakehurst Volunteer Fire company, which he joined in 2004.
Chief Kline said, “I want to congratulate Lieutenant James on his well-deserved promotion and wish him the best of luck in his new position. 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. The agency and myself are fortunate to have that. Without the continued support of the entire governing body, this would have not been possible,” Kline said.
Kline added, “the entire Lakehurst Police Department would like to congratulate Lt. Iain James on his promotion and wish him a continued safe and healthy career.”
Lake Fees Discussed
In other borough council business that night Councilwoman Patricia Hodges said she had been involved in further research concerning an ordinance pertaining to the borough’s lake. During the summer overcrowding by non-residents was noted at the lake and the council had discussed the idea of adding a lake use fee or possibly parking stickers to better control the flow of people in the lake area.
Chief Kline said that police had restricted some street use when the lake had reached maximum capacity and was monitoring the situation.
“I will be submitting a very rough draft for everyone to look at, Hodges said noting it would be reviewed first by Goldman. She also noted that various local use sections of the borough code book were also being reviewed for updates.
