Sean Reifel is speaking out about his town’s mayor commenting on his leaving the police force to join Love Island USA.
The 29-year-old season eight islander, who was the first dumped from the island this year, was a cop in Bethlehem, Penn., before leaving to Fiji to appear on the Peacock dating show.
In a controversial statement, the town’s mayor, J William Reynolds, criticized Sean for leaving the police force to go on Love Island USA.
“Our police department spent a lot of time training,” he told local outlet WHTM. “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.”
“I never thought I’d see the day in America where reality show participation wins out over being a police officer,” the mayor added.
He later told TMZ that Sean could re-join the force, but would have to start at square one in the hiring process.
Sean‘s sister hit back at the mayor on social media and said this was a missed opportunity for the mayor and PD to connect with the community.
On Aftersun‘s first episode over the weekend, cameras were up and showed Sean‘s reaction to finding out what the mayor said.
“I guess he’s upset. That’s interesting,” Sean said after reading about the comments. “I definitely had a sit down with my job and told them exactly where I was going and what was happening, and they asked me to put in for unpaid leave.”
“It does bother me because they just, before I left, gave me awards for like, with my partners, taking a lady out of a building on fire and talking someone off a roof that was mentally ill,” he continued. “So, it’s like to give me those and then do something like this? I just don’t understand.”
“I don’t want to say anything bad about them. I know things can be taken out of context. Everyone in the department knew where I was going,” Sean said. “I hope like, you know, my partners I worked with are like, you know, still appreciate all the stuff we have.”
Sean‘s mom also previously commented on the mayor’s statements on social media, saying they didn’t spend as much money on his training as he already came to that department with four years of training as a sheriff deputy in Northern California.
She added that while they say he resigned, he was denied the leave after requesting it.
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