OCEAN CITY – A request to install a banner honoring late Ocean City Police Sgt. Charles “Chip” Green will move forward to the Mayor and Council with a favorable recommendation from a resort commission.
Last week, the Ocean City Police Commission voted unanimously to support a request from the Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) to place a banner honoring Green in front of the department’s Boardwalk substation.
Lt. Dennis Eade, presenting the banner on behalf of Custody Officer Bob Luckett, told commission members the idea to recognize Green came during a peer counseling session following his death.
“We thought perhaps there was a way we could memorialize Chip out on the Boardwalk, where we all know he spent a vast majority of his career on the back of the police mount,” he said. “So Bob Luckett talked to some of his contacts at the Elks Lodge and the gentleman who does the banners for the veterans that we see on the Boardwalk made a donation. That donation is this banner of Sergeant Green.”
In early May, the OCPD announced Green’s sudden passing. Originally from Hampstead, Md., Green joined the department as a seasonal officer in 1994 and worked for four summers before being hired full time in 1998.
Green was promoted to the rank of Police Officer First Class in 2003, Corporal in 2015 and Sergeant in January 2020. During his 22-year career, he was primarily assigned to the Patrol Division and was the supervisor and assistant coordinator of the Mounted Unit prior to his passing. He and his mount Benson had been icons on the Boardwalk for the past decade.
In last week’s meeting, Eade said the department was seeking the commission’s recommendation, and the Mayor and Council’s approval, to fly the banner near the OCPD substation. Officials said the banner would be installed near Memorial Day.
“We’re looking at when the weather warms a little bit,” Police Chief Ross Buzzuro said, “maybe in the spring.”
The request received a favorable recommendation from police commission members.
“That really is nice,” Mayor Rick Meehan said of the banner. “Please extend our thanks to the gentleman who did this.”
Councilman Lloyd Martin agreed.
“It’s beautiful, it really is.”
