The Jackson Township Council is set to appoint Joe Candido as its Public Safety Director. A three-decade resident of Jackson, Candido is currently a sergeant with the Jackson Police Department, where he has served for the past 28 years.
Candido, a former Jackson “Police Officer of the Year,” would bring a wealth of experience to the Public Safety Director position.
Candido’s appointment will not replace the Chief of Police or eliminate the position. Instead, Candido will be tasked with helping make corrective recommendations to the administration, including on budgeted items, reporting on police department-related issues to the township, establishing police performance and standards policy, and staying ahead of New Jersey state mandates for reporting and accountability of local police departments as directed by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.
Candido was born in Croatia and moved to Brooklyn in 1968, where he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1976. He lived with his family primarily in Lyndhurst, then moved to Freehold in 1981, followed by another move to Jackson in 1993, where he has lived ever since.
He graduated from Freehold Township High School in 1984 and attended college at LaSalle University graduating in 1988.
He was hired by the Jackson Police Dept. in 1999 and attended the Burlington County Police Academy where he graduated third in his class in 2000. Candido worked on the afternoon shift for the first half of his 21-year career and has been involved with the Police Explorers program and as a field training officer for new academy recruits.
He was promoted to the rank of sergeant in August 2020.