By Donald Wittkowski
Tom D’Intino usually was seen around town wearing his police uniform, black shoes and carrying his gun.
These days, Sea Isle City’s former police chief favors shorts, flip-flops and carries a golf club.
“My golf game has improved, by the way,” D’Intino said, laughing, of his retirement.
D’Intino, who retired Jan. 31, returned to City Hall during a City Council meeting on Tuesday to be honored for his 28-year career with the Sea Isle Police Department, including the last 10 years as chief.
While thanking D’Intino for his lengthy public service, Mayor Leonard Desiderio praised him for setting “a professional bar as police chief at the highest level.”
D’Intino started his career in 1990 and climbed the ranks from patrolman to chief. Along the way, he was promoted to sergeant, lieutenant and captain before being named chief in 2008. In doing so, “he immediately distinguished himself as a leader,” Desiderio said.
Among his accomplishments, D’Intino reformed what had been a troubled police department that was formerly under the monitoring of Cape May County to win full accreditation from the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, the mayor said. Accreditation means that the police department is meeting more than 100 of the highest standards of the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police.
Desiderio also credited D’Intino for overseeing the smooth transition of the police department into the new City Hall. The old City Hall was ruined by flooding from Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. Prior to the opening of the new City Hall in 2015, the police department was headquartered in the former Sea Isle City Public School.
As chief, D’Intino had some of his own battles, including a dispute with the union representing the police department’s rank-and-file officers. In 2016, the union questioned his leadership and complained about alleged low morale within the department.
City Council came to D’Intino’s defense, giving him its full support after the union dispute first became public. City Business Administrator George Savastano, the top official in Desiderio’s administration, also defended D’Intino’s leadership in 2017 and rebuked the police union for its allegations.
During the ceremony Tuesday in his honor, D’Intino praised Sea Isle’s police officers, stressing that it takes “a great team” to provide public safety. He also thanked the mayor, the Council members and his family for their support.
D’Intino was given a standing ovation by the audience when Desiderio presented him with a city proclamation. Among those shaking D’Intino’s hand was newly appointed Police Chief Tom McQuillen.
“I’ve got big shoes to fill,” McQuillen said.
Although the ceremony was largely serious, Desiderio couldn’t resist getting in a dig about D’Intino spending his retirement on the golf course.
“We hope he takes at least one stroke off his golf game,” the mayor quipped.
