OCEAN CITY — When Joe Biden was officially sworn in as the 46th president of the United States at midday on Wednesday, a large contingent of Ocean City Police Department officers was on hand to help provide security.
The Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) sent a contingent of 37 police officers, led by Lieutenants Dennis Eade and Scott Harner, to the 59th inauguration this week to serve as a supplemental uniformed presence. The OCPD officers were stationed along Pennsylvania Avenue, ironically near the Trump International Hotel.
This week’s trip continued a long-standing tradition for the OCPD and other law enforcement agencies across the Lower Shore of sending officers to assist with security at presidential inaugurations. An OCPD contingent was also on hand for President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. Worcester County Sheriff Matt Crisafulli also confirmed this week his department sent a contingent to Washington, D.C. this week for the inauguration, although the size of the contingent and how they were deployed was not made public.
While the OCPD and other local law enforcement agencies have been sending delegations to presidential inaugurations for decades to assist with security, this year was a little different. In the ramp-up to Wednesday’s inauguration, National Guard troops poured into Washington and encamped in the Capitol. Barriers were erected, and security was heightened throughout the city in anticipation of protests, which, for the most part, never came.
In a unique twist for the OCPD, the local contingent connected with law enforcement officers from Sacramento, Calif. Local residents and long-time visitors are surely familiar with an overhead road sign at the foot of the Route 50 bridge that marks the mileage to Sacramento, which is at the opposite end of Route 50, at 3,073 miles.
A similar sign exists at the opposite end of Route 50 in Sacramento marking 3,073 miles to Ocean City, Maryland. Officers from both departments posed for a picture with their respective patches with the Capitol dome in the background. OCPD Deputy Communications Director Ashley Miller said after the inauguration sending the town’s police officers to the event continued a long-standing tradition for the department.
“It is an honor and tradition to send personnel to each inauguration,” she said. “Our officers are able to connect to fell law enforcement personnel from across the country during the week. A perfect example of that was getting to meet a fellow law enforcement officer from Sacramento, California. We were able to get a photo of the two officers standing together to show the two ends of U.S. Route 50 coming together to stand side by side during this historical event.”
