Acting chief welcomes
official shift in position
By Sherry conohan
Staff Writer
Capt. Richard White will be taking over as Monmouth Beach’s new police chief on New Year’s Day.
MONMOUTH BEACH — The borough will have a new police chief as of 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1.
The Borough Commission, at its Dec. 10 meeting, appointed Capt. Richard A. White to be police chief, succeeding Chief Patrick McConville when McConville officially retires at midnight on Dec. 31.
White was promoted from lieutenant to captain of the Police Department in April. He has been serving as acting chief since May 1, when McConville went out on accumulated leave until his retirement. White’s swearing-in as chief will take place at 4 p.m. Jan. 3.
White began as a policeman in Monmouth Beach in July 1978. He was hired by then-Police Chief Richard L. Keller, who has long since retired and is now the volunteer director of the Monmouth Beach Cultural Center.
White attended Brookdale Community College, Lincroft section of Middletown, but said he got his real education in police work on the street. He served as a special police officer in Long Branch from 1976 to 1978. He had just joined the campus police force at Monmouth University when Keller, whom he had approached about a job some time earlier, asked him to join the borough Police Department. By then, White said, he had gotten married and moved into Monmouth Beach.
"It’s been a love affair ever since," he said of his job with the department.
White, who is 50, said in an interview after his appointment that even though he’s been doing the work of police chief for several months now, it’s hard to realize he will soon become the chief.
"My wife tells me that the reality hasn’t set in yet," he said.
White said he will be overseeing a police force of "great guys" being left by McConville.
"Pat left a good base to start from," he said. "He was, and still is, very active with the community."
The community, he added, always helps out in any time of need.
"We have a very diverse community," he noted. "We have a lot of Wall Street people and we have a lot of blue-collar people."
From a personal viewpoint, White said that after two and a half decades of shift work, he welcomes the daytime hours that go with the job most of the time.
"This is a great place to work. I’m so fortunate," he said. "And I live a block and a half away from work. How lucky can you be?"