{"id":210763,"date":"2026-06-04T18:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T18:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/210763\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T18:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T18:15:10","slug":"bethlehem-mayor-says-officer-sean-reifel-resigned-from-police-force-to-appear-on-reality-show-love-island-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/210763\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem mayor says Officer Sean Reifel resigned from police force to appear on reality show &#8216;Love Island USA&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">BETHLEHEM, Pa. (WPVI) &#8212; The mayor of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is speaking out after a new &#8220;Love Island USA&#8221; contestant left his job as a police officer to join the reality dating show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Mayor J. William Reynolds says Sean Reifel resigned from the police department after the city spent thousands of taxpayer dollars on his training and police academy education.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Reynolds called the departure disappointing, saying the department now has another vacancy that won&#8217;t be filled until next year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The police chief echoed those concerns, saying departments across the country are struggling to recruit officers and relying on overtime to cover staffing gaps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Reifel served less than a year with the department.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Reynolds swore in Reifel as an officer on Aug. 18 last year, according to a <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BethlehemPolice\/posts\/pfbid0E6TZVhSMJFRg6cgBzP2te59nciYmsnQjrM1fbd5xsERNi7fz6UPmT672j3MKv1XJl?rdid=moCwO3iDJ1TWbQH9#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">post by the police department<\/a>. The two appeared together, smiling and shaking hands in photos.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Reifel was one of 12 new singles featured in Tuesday&#8217;s premiere.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Reifel hasn&#8217;t commented, likely because contestants are kept in isolation until filming wraps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">As the show goes on, couples will compete for America&#8217;s affection and a share of $100,000.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. (WPVI) &#8212; The mayor of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is speaking out after a new &#8220;Love Island USA&#8221;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[92363,119,121,120],"class_list":["post-210763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-92363","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}