Gloucester County honors HTPD

The Gloucester County Police Awards Committee hosted its 46th Annual Awards Banquet on October 22 at Adelphia Restaurant in Deptford. The committee honored outstanding police officers across the county for their work in 2025.

Amongst the honorees were officers from Harrison Township Police Department (HTPD).

For an officer to receive an award, they must be nominated by another officer to the Gloucester County Police Awards Committee, and the committee then reviews the officers and their meaningful actions and initiatives.

Five officers from HTPD received honors.

Katelin Macken received an Exceptional Duty Award for her work taking over the physical training program at the Gloucester County Police Academy (GCPA).

In an email statement on behalf of HTPD, Lieutenant Kurt Pflugfelder said “This program was found to be so effective that it will be rolled out to all police academies across New Jersey. She currently serves as a physical training instructor at the GCPA in addition to her duties (at HTPD).”

Anel Kalabic, Joseph Fiore, Gregory Germscheid and Pflugfelder all received the Distinguished Service ribbon “from their actions during the investigation, pursuit and apprehension of two robbery suspects in September of 2025.”

Additionally, Germscheid, along with K9 Dunkin, received the K9 Deployment Award and the K9 Officer of the Year Award for 2025. This is the third time Germscheid has received the honor of K9 Officer of the Year.

The award is given to “the K9 team that exemplifies outstanding annual performance for the year, attaining highly credible accomplishments and bringing public acclaim to himself, the department, the community, and the police K9 profession over the past year.” The aforementioned September 2025 incident is part of the reason Germscheid received the honor.

“We’re proud of all our officers and are ecstatic to see them recognized when they go above and beyond to keep our communities safe,” Pflugfelder said.