Owens to retire as chief of police next year

Cranbury Police Chief Michael Owens is retiring from his post come the new year.

Mayor Eman El-Badawi announced that Owens is retiring in February on Dec. 10. In her mayor’s update, she informed the public that current Cranbury Lt. Giuseppe DeChiara will succeed Owens when he retires next year.

Owens will be retiring after 26 years as a police officer with Cranbury Township Police Department. He has been serving as Cranbury’s chief of police for four years after he was sworn-in on Oct. 1, 2020, with his family, wife Jennifer, and his children son Cooper and daughter Eva.

While in Cranbury, Owens rose through the police ranks from patrol officer to detective to sergeant, then lieutenant. He helped to develop the department’s Field Training Officer program and had been one of the first detectives to begin in Cranbury.   

He also had worked as a DARE officer, now LEAD officer, for a portion of his service in Cranbury at the Cranbury School.

Owens began his law enforcement career in the Seaside Heights Police Department as a special officer Class 1. He worked as seasonal Class 2 officer following his graduation from the Ocean County Police Academy. 

He was hired to be a full-time officer in Cranbury in January 1999. Prior, he served a brief stint for the Mantoloking Police Department for a summer.