OCEAN CITY — Bill Campbell was sworn in as the city’s new police chief Nov. 9, replacing Jay Prettyman, who retired after a 32 years with the Ocean City Police Department.
The 55-year-old grew up in Lansdowne, Pa. He and his wife have a 22-year-old son and live in Egg Harbor Township.
Campbell worked on the island as a special law enforcement officer class I in 1989 and 1990 and class II in 1991 and 1992.
Campbell was hired Aug. 1, 1994, as full-time officer. He worked in the patrol division until 2000, when he made a lateral transfer into traffic safety unit.
He was promoted to sergeant in spring 2004 and, after four years, was promoted to lieutenant in May 2008.
A decade later, Campbell was promoted to captain in February 2018 and then promoted to deputy chief in 2022.
Campbell said there was no test to become chief because he was the clear second in command under Prettyman, who recommended him for the position upon his retirement.
“I consider it an honor and a privilege to be named chief of police,” Campbell said, noting he would keep in place most of the current policies and procedures established under Prettyman and his predecessors.
“Right now, since I’m fairly new, obviously, I’m just evaluating everything but this is a well-oiled machine, I really don’t see a need to blow everything up and start from scratch,” he said. “I’ve been here, I’m in my 30th year, and the leadership that we’ve had over the years has been outstanding.”
Campbell said the department is one of the very few that has been accredited six times.
“I think we are rock solid from a policy standpoint, that really carries the day,” he said. “The way we do business and the employees adhere to it, that sets you up for success.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge of being chief of the city police department is handling the mass influx of visitors in the summer months, as well as smaller crowds in the shoulder season.
But Campbell said he is well versed in handling that responsibility.
“We’ve been doing this for so many years, it’ not our first rodeo,” he said. “We know what to expect and hire a lot of seasonal officers to help us with crowd control.”
Campbell said he would continue steps taken by Prettyman to control the rowdy groups of teens that had been gathering on the boardwalk and beach, ruining the family vacation for many tourists.
He said rolling the beach curfew back to 8 p.m. “definitely had an influence,” as well as the city ordinance banning backpacks and officers enforcing the ordinance.
“Those three things were reflective on how we went about turning around the mass gatherings of people on beaches and boardwalks,” Campbell said.
The new chief said even though he is past retirement age, he plans to stay around for a while.
During the meeting, Mayor Jay Gillian read a proclamation naming Campbell to the position.
“Our public safety is the best,” the mayor said. “The men and women of the Ocean City Police Department keep us safe, and nothing is more important to me as mayor than that. When you come to Ocean City, you feel safe.”
In other business, Gillian reported the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a pre-construction meeting Nov. 8 to go over plans for the beach replenishment project at the southern end of Ocean City, along with Strathmere and Sea Isle City.
The work is set to begin in Ocean City with mobilization of equipment starting as soon as Nov. 15. On Nov. 18 or 19, weather permitting, crews from Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. are expected to place a subline that will carry sand from a borrow area near Corson’s Inlet to the beach at 56th Street, he said.
Sand-pumping operations are expected to begin before the end of November. Crews will work from 56th Street to 45th Street with about 1,000 feet of beach closed at a time as the job progresses northward.
When that work is complete, the direction of work will flip to the south to finish the area from 56th Street to 59th Street.
Gillian said Great Lakes anticipates about 16 days of pumping before the work is complete in mid-December.
Operations will then move on to the Strathmere section of Upper Township.
“Ocean City will have received 257,000 cubic yards of new sand, and we will be requesting additional stockpiles for emergency use,” Gillian said. “We have been working with the Army Corps and the state Department of Environmental Protection for more than 30 years on these projects, and I’m grateful for an excellent working partnership to protect our coastline.”
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff