Four New Officers Join Bristol Twp. Police Force, Three Veteran Officers Retire

Four new Bristol Township police officers were ceremoniously sworn in before Bristol Township Council in March and April.

Last week, officers Tristen Sharp and William Schmidt came before council and the public to be sworn in by District Judge Kevin Wagner.

Sharpe started last year and joined the Bristol Township police force after working as a juvenile detention officer for Sussex County, New Jersey.

Sharp, who grew up in Sussex County, New Jersey, moved from Sparta, New Jersey to Bucks County last year after beginning work in Bristol Township.

Sharp is a 2015 graduate of Delaware Valley High School in Pike County and a 2022 graduate of the Temple University Municipal Police Academy.

Schmidt was also hired last year after graduating the Temple University Municipal Police Academy.

Schmidt grew up Springfield Township, Montgomery County. He attended Springfield Township High School and the Eastern Center for Arts and Technology, graduating both in 2017. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history.

Last month, officers John Leible and Benjamin Silverman were ceremoniously sworn in by District Judge Terry Hughes.

Bensalem Township native Leible started working in Bristol Township last year. He joined after working for the Bristol Borough and Bristol Borough police departments.

Leible attended the Philadelphia Police Academy and has a bachelor’s degree from Penn State University.

Silverman also joined the department last year after working as a Bucks County 9-1-1 dispatcher.

Silverman, a Lower Moreland Township, Montgomery County native, worked as a dispatcher from 2007 to 2019. He then worked as a 9-1-1 technology specialist starting in 2019.

He joined the police department after graduating from the Temple University Municipal Police Academy in 2022.

In March, the council and township officials recognized three retiring officers.

Sgt. Thomas Gaffney was recognized for his long career in the township, and as Bristol Township police Lt. Sean Cosgrove put it, his ability to be both “equal parts respected and feared by the patrolmen.”

Gaffney joined the Bristol Township police department in 1993 after serving in the U.S. Navy. He worked in the narcotics, vice investigations, and patrol units.

“Tom observed his surroundings carefully and thought deeply. His words and actions were always well-chosen and direct. This tactic coupled nicely with his near inhuman strength. Tom rarely encountered a wrong that Tom could not right efficiently,” Cosgrove said.

Officer George Slayback retired after a career in the department that began in 1997.

Cosgrove said with a laugh that Slayback “cashed the checks that my mouth wrote.”

“George was Croydon boy and a very skilled Marine Mechanic. Almost everyone from that end of the town or that owned a boat knew George. George and I worked right next to one another as rookies. We were a Mutt and Jeff team,” Cosgrove said.

Slayback was a firearms instructor and used his mechanical skills while working as a motor carrier safety officer, taking dangerous commercial vehicles off the streets.

“For the last 14 years, George did this unsung job well. The roads were safer under his watch,” Cosgrove said.

Officer John Lancieri began working as a Bristol Township officer in 1994 and also worked as a part-time officer for both Bristol Borough and Tullytown Borough. He began working full-time in Bristol Township in 1997.

Lancieri remodeled homes during the day and worked as a patrolman at night. He also was the department’s firearms instructor, community policing officer, narcotics investigator, and town watch organizer.

“John hated paperwork. They don’t show you this on television, but paperwork is like a third of the job. John viewed time spent preparing reports as a nuisance – a nuisance that kept him away from the street and away from the people that he enjoyed serving. The people liked John right back,” Cosgrove said.

When Lancieri worked his last shift in winter, a crowd of citizens showed up at the police station for a sendoff.

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