For Most Red Bank Police Officers November Is A No-Shave Month

RED BANK, NJ — Red Bank police officers are giving their razors a break during November for a good cause.

For the fourth year in a row, the Red Bank PBA is participating in No Shave November, an annual charity month-long event where men don't shave or cut their facial hair as a way to raise money for a good cause.

This year, officers have chosen two causes to contribute towards.

They will donate funds to an ALS charity in the name of a former Monmouth County 9-1-1 operator and a volunteer fireman who died of ALS and to the family of a woman with stage four Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who used to work in Red Bank and moved out of state.

"The money we raise for them can help economically towards bill relief or maybe give them a little extra Christmas," said PBA President Michael Padlock. "We don’t ask them what they do with the money. Whatever you wanna do, we support, because we don’t know what you’re going through. We're just here to help."

Red Bank police officers usually have to abide by a pretty strict grooming policy, which doesn't allow them to grow a beard.

"We can only have a mustache that doesn't go past the edge of our lips," said Zadlock. "That grooming standard is held because we are the face of the public, we are the frontlines that come to someone on a traffic stop or come to someone's house for a call of service. We like to keep a very traditional look of clean-cut — not having long hair, not having facial hair."

Officers get a break from their shaving routine for all of November, as long as they commit to raising a minimum of $100.

Out of 39 members, a total of 3o are participating in No-Shave November, including Zadlock and the Red Bank police chief.

"The members who don't participate in it, some do donate towards the cause. It is almost entirely department-wide participation," Zadlock said.

Zadlock said that Chief Darren McConnell has always fully supported the initiative.

"For the moral point of it it was great because everyone is so excited, they're gonna grow their beards," Zadlock. "The overall final goal is to raise money for families in need, for people in need. I think it's a bittersweet thing. We're raising money for a person in need, we can't really sit there and say we're happy to be doing it because the downside is that it's someone that had already passed away or is having a financial or medical episode."

Zadlock said the main point of the initiative is to give back to the community.

"We wanna help the community, we wanna help everyone that we possibly can, because in our profession we can come to a stranger's house and it can be the worst day in their life.," he said.

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