Ocean City considering hiring more police officers

OCEAN CITY, Md. – Ocean City is looking at hiring ten more year-round police officers. Mayor Rick Meehan says Ocean City needs more police officers because their busy season has expanded over the years. But he adds that those new police officers will cost the town a pretty penny. “Adding ten additional police officers, that’s about a $900,000 yearly expense if you add all ten officers. But the council, I believe, is committed to that,” said Mayor Meehan.

Ocean City council members are looking at ways to pay for the positions. The mayor says one of the areas they can save is their budget for seasonal police officers. “We budget on a yearly basis for 80 seasonal officers, and the number of officers we’ve been able to hire in the past few years has been between 45 and 50. So we’re going to reduce the budgetary amount down to 50, which will actually free up approximately $268,000,” said Mayor Meehan.

Mayor Meehan tells 47ABC the council wanted to start discussions about hiring the police officers sooner than later. He says that COVID-19 will likely slow down their hiring and training process. Plus, Mayor Meehan says he feels less people are interested in becoming police officers nowadays.