Five New Officers Join the NBPD
June 25, 2021Five North Bergen residents became new members of the North Bergen Police Department on Tuesday, June 22, 2021. Mayor Nicholas Sacco and Chief of Police Peter Fasilis presided over the oath of office ceremony in township chambers, along with Commissioners Allen Pascual, Hugo Cabrera, and Julio Marenco. Four of the new officers have prior law enforcement experience.
Martin Antelo, a 22-year resident of North Bergen, graduated from the Passaic County Police Academy in 2018 and currently serves as a SLEO II with the Community Policing Unit.
Christian Arcos, a lifelong resident of North Bergen, will be graduating from Rutgers University in the spring of 2022 with dual majors in criminal justice and sociology with a minor in computer science. He is currently serving in the NJ National Guard with the rank of sergeant since 2014. He is the first in his family to serve in law enforcement and will be attending the Hudson County Police Academy starting in July.
Freddy Au-Castillo has lived in North Bergen for 3 years and 8 months. He opened his own business in 2007, A trucking company servicing the NY-NJ ports. He graduated from the Passaic County Police Academy in 2020 and currently serves as a SLEO II for the North Bergen Police Department in the Patrol Division Squad 3
Christopher Bowen, a lifelong resident of North Bergen, graduated from the Passaic County Police Academy in March 2020, after which he worked as a sheriff’s officer for the Hudson County Sheriff’s Department. His older brother Brendan Bowen is a police officer with the NBPD.
Catherine Cabrera, another lifelong resident of North Bergen, currently works as a SLEO II with the NBPD and graduated from the Passaic County Police Academy. Her brother-in-law Santiago Hernandez is the sergeant of the Internal Affairs Unit.
North Bergen’s resident-only hiring policy has resulted in a police department that closely matches community demographics, more accurately representing the community. These new hires bring the total to 125 full-time officers, the most in the township’s history.