By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Some members of the Sea Isle City Police Department this summer may be a bit older than the typically young men and women who start their law enforcement careers by working as seasonal officers.
Sea Isle is looking to attract retired police officers back to the department for the summer to help fill a looming shortage of seasonal officers in the popular beach resort at its busiest time of year.
“There is no age limit,” Capt. Anthony Garreffi, officer in charge of the Sea Isle police department, said of bringing retired cops back for the summer.
During an interview Thursday, Garreffi noted that no retired officers have expressed interest yet in working this summer. He said he hopes that at least one or two of them do return, but stressed that they wouldn’t be given any special treatment because of their status as former officers.
They would have to fill out a regular job application and would need a doctor’s authorization to show they are physically capable of carrying out police duties, Garreffi added.
“They’d have to be able to perform the tasks of a police officer,” he said. “We’re not going to change the standards for them.”
The pay will be $16 per hour, but Garreffi noted that Sea Isle may boost that to $20 to provide an extra incentive for seasonal officers if the city’s budget will allow it.
“Depending on the interest, there might be room for a little more money due to having less summer help than usual,” he said of the possibility of boosting the pay for seasonal officers.
This is the first year that Sea Isle is recruiting retired officers to work over the summer season. The move underscores the challenges that not only Sea Isle, but other New Jersey shore communities as well, face in trying to fill their ranks with seasonal officers during the bustling summer tourism season.
“Virtually every other town is having an issue getting seasonal officers,” said Ocean City Police Chief Jay Prettyman, who also serves as president of the Cape May County Chiefs of Police Association.
Prettyman pointed out that some police departments have increased the pay or are recruiting retired officers as ways to find qualified seasonal help amid a shortage of applicants.
“I can say as president that, from what I hear from my colleagues, is that applicants for seasonal employment at police departments are down overall,” he explained. “And some agencies are having a difficult time filling the desired positions. Some of the municipalities are trying to use some unorthodox ways to hire seasonal officers by either increasing the pay or looking to hire retired officers.”
Ocean City’s police department, though, may be one of the few exceptions. Prettyman said his department isn’t having difficulty finding officers for the summer season.
Garreffi said he would like to have 30 to 35 seasonal officers this year. So far, Sea Isle has seven new seasonal officers who have graduated from the Cape May County Police Academy and 13 more are expected to graduate on July 4.
Traditionally, seasonal police work is a pathway for young men and women to start their careers in law enforcement. As part of their summer experience, they perform duties ranging from handing out parking tickets to going on regular patrols and making arrests.
Garreffi, who started his career as a summer officer, said Sea Isle’s police department went to the campuses of Rowan University and Stockton University to recruit college-age applicants for seasonal positions. Next year, Sea Isle will expand the recruitment program by visiting other local colleges, in addition to Rowan and Stockton, he said.
Sea Isle also plans to have a bigger presence at job fairs to recruit summer officers.
But to expand the pool of candidates even more, Sea Isle decided to recruit retired police officers for the first time this summer. Garreffi said he consulted with Cape May Police Chief Dekon Fashaw because Cape May has experience in using retired officers for seasonal help.
“As far as I know, it’s worked out,” Garreffi said of Cape May.
As Sea Isle and other police departments consider new and innovative ways to bolster their summer ranks, they are also trying to figure out why they are facing a shortage of applicants. No hard answers are clear, Garreffi explained.
“I wish I knew,” he said. “I’m not sure if it’s the way police are perceived these days or the money. I wish I had an answer so I could fix it.”
Garreffi added that “policing isn’t for everybody.” For instance, some candidates simply drop out of the police training academy, making it that much more difficult for departments at the shore to recruit qualified candidates.
“It seems to be across the board for the shore towns all this way down,” Garreffi said.
