Three Springfield Police Officers were promoted at the May 25th Springfield Township Committee meeting. Officers Schmidt, Sidar and Weinstock were elevated to the rank of Sergeant. Speaking about the Officers at the meeting and in an exclusive interview with the Patriot Times, Chief John Cook made the following comments:
“In June of 2015 Officer Schmidt had forwarded a letter of interest and his resume to me but there were no openings at the time. The letter and resume were very impressive and a few months later in December of 2015 we were able to interview Matt which led to me making him an offer of employment.
Matt has several years of volunteer service as an EMT and as a firefighter. He also has several years of experience of being a communications officer which benefited him greatly when he became a police officer for another agency for several years and is a benefit now as he is becoming a supervisor. He also remains a certified EMT.
Matt’s previous experience that he has brought to our team has him looked to by others as a seasoned officer and his performance certainly reflects that.”
“Officer Ercan Sidar started with the Springfield Police Department as a Class Two Special Officer in December of 2012. Prior to that he was a member of the Springfield Auxiliary Police, a unit his late father served in from 2005 until his untimely passing in 2011.
The position for a Class II Officer had become available a month after Ercan had graduated as an Auxiliary and he was eager to progress to this position. After only two months of having finished the auxiliary police academy training, in July 2011 Ercan went back into the Academy again for another five months of Class II training, entering only a few days after his Father’s passing.
Ercan graduated from the Class II training in December of 2011 and worked for our Department until December of 2012 at which time he was hired as a Probationary Officer to fill a vacancy.”
“In December of 2014, I was in need to hire two officers, one for a vacancy and another for an upcoming resignation. There were two candidates in the Union County Police Academy at the time who I felt would be great assets to our Department. I was able to get one of the two a few weeks before graduation but had to continue arguing my point for the need of a second officer until the day of graduation and I was given the approval to make a conditional offer about 90 minutes before the ceremony was to start.
With an offer of employment letter in my jacket pocket I rushed to the graduation ceremony and got there just in time to see that all of the recruits were already lined up to proceed into the building.
I had to sit through the entire graduation knowing that Cadet Greg Weinstock was sitting out there with his fellow cadets, most of whom had jobs with various agencies, all the while having an offer for him sitting in my pocket that he was not aware of.
After dismissal I finally saw Greg with his family and walked up to them congratulating him on his graduating the academy and now officially being a Police Officer.
He was excited, I’m sure, to have graduated but was also not quite as excited as his colleagues as again, most of them had commitments to police agencies.
At that time it was very rewarding for me to be able to take that letter from my pocket and tell him that it was an offer of employment and see the look, not only on his face but also of his family who were present, light up in an instant!
Greg has been one of our department’s Field Training Officers and has been assigned him to the County’s Emergency Response Team since February of 2020.”
Chief Cook finished up by thanking all of the family members, friends, and colleagues of all of the new sergeants who had shown up at the meeting in support.
Photo 1: (l to r) Sergeant Schmidt's wife Kelly, son Logan, Sergeant Schmidt' and Mayor Chris Weber
Photo 2: (l to r) Sergeant Sidar's mother Ayfer, his wife Bahar, Sergeant Ercan Sidar and Mayor Chris Weber
Photo 3: (l to r) Sergeant Weinstock's son Hunter, his wife, Michelle, Sergeant Greg Weinstock and Mayor Chris Weber
Photo 4 (l to r) Chief of Police John Cook, Sergeant Schmidt, Sergeant Sidar, Sergeant Weinstock and Mayor Chris Weber
