Salerno to be promoted to deputy chief
Kinmon: 'It's a good thing for the dept. and a good thing for the city'
Detective Anthony Salerno will be promoted to Deputy Chief at a swearing-in ceremony Thursday, May 1 in Asbury Park City Council chambers.
Salerno [shown above] has been with the department for 26 years.
“He’s the right person the for job,” said Chief Mark Kinmon. “He’s got a lot of history in the city — he’s an Asbury Park High School graduate and his dad worked for the department.”
Salerno’s main responsibilities will include day-to-day operations of the departments and oversight of the three major divisions, investigative, patrol and administrative. He will also resume the role of public information officer, which Capt. Marshawn Love had been handling, Kinmon said. Love will remain captain of the department’s investigative division, he said.
Born and raised in Asbury Park, Salerno began his work with the police department in July of 1988 upon graduating from the Monmouth County Police Academy as the top scorer in his class. Salerno has worked in the patron division, juvenile division, the adult bureau, detective bureau, as department head of the internal affairs unit, in the investigative section, as the departments public information officer, and most recently as director of the city’s code enforcement.
His duties with the code enforcement department ended in January when he was reassigned to his current role as patrol commander.
“Tony and I will be talking in the next few weeks where the department is going in the future and how to best utilize personnel,” Kinmon said. “How we’ll be able to better hand the community needs, including more walking patrol officers. Tony will focus on those things to settle the department as an organization.
“I’m very exicited,” said Salerno. “I feel re-energized, my batteries are charged and he is excited about the opportunities in a growing city with diverse challenges.”
The biggest challenges that face the department include stopping the violence and gang activity in Asbury park, Salerno said.
“Violent crime, regardless of whether it is down or not, is always a problem,” he said. “One of my biggest responsibilities will not only be to reduce violent crime, but reduce the fear of violent crime in Asbury Park.”
Salerno intends to accomplish that by supporting Chief Kinmon’s programs and position to include, through partnerships, members of the community, the school system and members of local clergy to work hand-in-hand with the police department, he said.
Another objective is to continue to work with area law enforcement including the prosecutor’s office, sheriff’s department, drug enforcement agency, state police and U.S. Marshall in a collective effort to make the city’s streets safer, he said.
“No one person or one agency can do what needs to be done in Asbury Park alone,” Salerno said. “We need the partnership of the community and outside agencies to make a positive and long-lasting change for the citizens here.”
Following recent accusations of police brutality in the city, Salerno said he will also be working to improve community relations.
“It’s always been my position that we need to get back to a stronger community oriented policing style, to include officers on walking patrols and more involvement in positive aspects of life within the community.”
“Working with the department for over 26 years, I can personally attest we have many of the best police officers I have had the privilege of working with,” he said. “There is no question … we have officers that need improvement, we need to diligently work on that as well but the key factor is when we have identified or the public has identified an officer that is not working within the laws or public decency — that will not be tolerated and we will do all that we can do to ferret out the problems because the reputation of the department is much more important than any isolated officer or group of officers, and the city deserves that.”
“I don’t know that I’ve seen a more driven law enforcement minded individual,” said Kinmon. “It’s a good thing for the department and a good thing for the city. He’s dedicated and takes a lot of pride in the job that he does.”
Kinmon served as the city’s last deputy chief until he was promoted to chief in 2007. Since then the department has functioned with just a chief or a police director with two police inspectors, the last police inspector retiring in December 2012.
At the May 1 ceremony, Sargent John Crescio will be promoted to lieutenant. Crescio has been with the department for 16 years. He has already taken on the active responsibilities of the position and is assigned to the evening squad, in charge of the 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift, Kinmon said.
Salerno will be negotiating with the city for his own contract, separate from the police union, Kinmon said.
Salerno has been married for 22 years to Debra Dello. He has two sons, Anthony, 39, from a previous marriage and Marc, 21. His father and father-in-law both retired from the department after 28 years of service each, and his brother-in-law, Det. Eugene Dello, a 32-year veteran, is currently in charge of street parking operations.
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