OCPD Moving on from Summer Officer Program

OCEAN CITY, Md. – The Ocean City Police Department is going to be operating a little differently this summer…
as they move away from a long-standing program.

In years past, the Ocean City Police Department would employ a Summer Officer Program geared towards bolstering numbers during the Summer.

Mayor Rick Meehan told me that they will not be running the program, opting instead to bring on more Public Safety Officers.

These officers, as Mayor Meehan says, would be the presence for the Ocean City Police Department on the ground.

And while the city will not be running the Seasonal Officer Program this year, they want to assure everyone that public safety still comes first and foremost.

“It creates a police presence. It’s also, like I said, they have radios. They are the eyes, ears of the Ocean City Police Department. We have also increased our City Watch Program, which is our camera program all throughout the boardwalk, Baltimore area and other areas of town. It’s about policing smarter. It’s about being in the right place at the right time…”

Mayor Meehan added that Ocean City will be safe this summer without seasonal officers due to factors he believes are helping Ocean City to police more effectively.

“You know, I think we’ve learned a lot, you know, over the last few years. I think technology has helped us a lot. I think increasing the number of year round officers has helped us and will continue to help us as the numbers grow. So the public safety is our number one priority. And we’re committed to it,” says Meehan.

And Mayor Meehan says that while the Seasonal Officer Program won’t yield dozens of part time hires, they will be hiring these Public Safety Officers as full-time employees.

Mayor Meehan could not give us a number of openings available, but he said that the number of season officers had gone down from over 100 to around a couple dozen in the last couple of years.