Retiring Toms River Police Chief To Officers: We Will Get Through This

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Shortly after 6 p.m. Friday, after the well-wishers had left the parking lot and work resumed in the Richard C. Clement Law Enforcement Center, a white sedan pulled up to the entrance to the police department.

Mitch Little paused for a moment and waved, then drove off, accompanied by his wife and son, as he closed a 39-year career in law enforcement.

For Little, a Toms River native who spent his entire career in the Toms River Police Department, the departure also marked the end of months of conflict with Toms River Mayor Daniel Rodrick.

Little, who announced his retirement to the department on Aug. 16, addressed the large crowd that gathered Friday to bid him farewell, a group that included staff, retired officers and a range of people who came to wish him well. Ocean County Commissioner Virginia Haines was present, along with Lakewood Police Chief Gregory Meyer, and William Sommeling, the retired Ocean County Undersheriff.

Little paid tribute to those who had led the department before him, including Clement, who was chief when Little first started coming into the police department as a child with his father, who rose to deputy chief before his retirement, setting an example for Mitch Little to follow.

He also paid tribute to Patrick Dellane, who retired as deputy chief effective July 31.

"He was always right by my side," Little said.

Little spent much of his time as chief trying to build community bonds, creating the Around the World in TR cultural food festival, which highlighted many of the cultures that exist in Toms River, and helped foster the Toms River Police Youth Camp, which gives kids interested in law enforcement a peek inside the job. The department also participated in "Bigs in Blue," where officers serve as mentors for children of single-parent households, along with National Night Out and other community initiatives.

Since early January, however, the conflict between Little and Rodrick had been escalating. Rodrick had suspended the chief in April over "an administrative issue," and last week Rodrick alleged Little was facing another suspension and retired instead.

The two had been at odds since Rodrick refused to allow Little to fill two captains' positions in January. Rodrick said the money from the two positions — which were being vacated by retirements —was needed to fund the hiring of additional EMTs for the township. Rodrick has said repeatedly that the department had too much command staff; Little said the three captains' positions — Dellane was the third — were necessary because of the size of the department. In addition to patrol officers and detectives, the township's EMTs and the Class III officers who provide security in the 15 schools in Toms River, along with the dispatchers, fall under the chief's supervision.

Little indirectly addressed the conflict, saying the police department has faced political challenges in the past.

"We will get through this," he said. "We have in the past, and we will get through this."

Haines praised the turnout to bid Little farewell.

"It just shows the support the chief and the Toms River Police Department have in the community," she said, adding that the captains are needed in the state's eighth largest municipality. "All they (the officers) want is to serve their neighbors."

"It's a shame, because Toms River is our county seat, to have all these problems," Haines said. "We should all be working together."