{"id":213785,"date":"2026-06-08T16:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T16:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/213785\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T16:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T16:49:08","slug":"bethlehem-cop-sean-reifel-on-love-island-usa-criticized-by-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/213785\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem cop Sean Reifel on ‘Love Island USA’ criticized by mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 A former Bethlehem Police officer is caught up in drama on TV and at home after the town\u2019s mayor complained he had wasted resources by leaving the force to join the reality show \u201cLove Island USA,\u201d FOX 8 reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sean Reifel, 29, was recently announced as a cast member of the dating show, which places single individuals together in an island villa and requires them to form couples in order to stay on the show. A $100,000 prize awaits the show\u2019s winner(s).<\/p>\n

| DOWNLOAD: What Cops Want in 2026 survey results<\/a><\/p>\n

In the first episode of season 8, Reifel spoke about his work on the force, telling viewers that working as an officer makes \u201cyou feel like you made a difference.”He was sent home during episode 5<\/a>, becoming the first \u201cislander\u201d to get dumped in season 8. <\/p>\n

Reifel was sworn into the Bethlehem Police Department in August 2025. He resigned from the department in May to appear on the show, Bethlehem Police Chief Michelle Kott told The Morning Call<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love Sean, he\u2019s a good guy, he was a great officer, but I\u2019m disappointed,\u201d Kott told The Morning Call. \u201cJust because we work so incredibly hard to try to recruit the best people we can to be part of the Bethlehem Police Department.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reifel\u2019s departure also drew ire from Bethlehem\u2019s mayor. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur police department spent a lot of time training and we paid thousands of taxpayer dollars to send him to the police academy. We are disappointed he left as we now have another vacancy in our department that is impossible to fill until next year …\u201d Mayor J. William Reynolds told FOX 8. \u201cI never thought I\u2019d see the day in America where reality show participation wins out over being a police officer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The officer\u2019s resignation raises a question for law enforcement agencies: Should officers who leave soon after being hired have to reimburse departments for taxpayer-funded training?<\/p>\n

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\n Atlantic City Police Sgt. Christian Ivanov was critically wounded while executing a search warrant; the shooter was killed in the encounter\n <\/p>\n

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\n Five suspects have been arrested after allegedly trying to steal more than $50,000 in sports memorabilia from a local retailer\n <\/p>\n

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\n While a Monroe County deputy approached the runaway boat and matched its speed and course, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent stopped it with a long boat hook\n <\/p>\n

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\n The Thurston County deputy can be seen trying to coax the man away from a burning fire when the man became combative and pulled out a weapon\n <\/p>\n

June 08, 2026 10:48 AM<\/p>\n

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\n The backbone of each conversation will be FirstNet and its continued impact on law enforcement efficiency and effectiveness at responding to cri\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 A former Bethlehem Police officer is caught up in drama on TV and at home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-213785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213785","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=213785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}