By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-06-01 14:11:54 | Updated at 2026-06-07 00:29:50
5 days ago
A former Pennsylvania police officer is facing flak for his decision to leave his understaffed station to join the hit reality dating show Love Island USA.
Ex-Bethlehem Police Department officer Sean Reifel, 29, left the force on May 20, police Chief Michelle Kott told The Morning Call on Saturday.
Reifel, who had only been on the job for nine months, was announced as a cast member via a Thursday trailer for the show's eighth season.
Kott pointed to shortages already present within the department.
'I love Sean, he's a good guy, he was a great officer, but I'm disappointed,' Kott said. 'Just because we work so incredibly hard to try to recruit the best people we can to be part of the Bethlehem Police Department.'
Reifel was sworn in by Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds this past August.
Mayor Reynolds said he was 'disappointed' to have 'invest[ed] in an individual with [the city's] time, our money, our resources' just for them 'to leave after [nine] months.'
'This is America, people can do what they want, but from our mission as far as the city of Bethlehem is, it's to have a police department that is fully staffed,' the mayor said. 'And we take that responsibility very seriously.'
Former Bethlehem Police Department officer Sean Reifel is leaving his understaffed force just nine months after being sworn in by the city's mayor, who said Saturday he was 'disappointed' to have 'invest[ed] in an individual' just for them 'to leave after [nine] months'
Reifel, 29, was announced as a cast member via a trailer for the show's eighth season on Thursday, where he was seen shirtless and doing handstands
Kott said that Reifel's departure leaves the police department 15 people short.
'Departments across the country… are struggling to fill vacancies,' the police chief complained.
'I don’t think there’d be a department that would be willing to allow someone to leave for "x" amount of weeks to go on a television show when everyone’s hurting right now and overtime is being utilized to fill those gaps.'
'Officers are getting burnt out. It’s just a bad look to me,' Kott said.
The Daily Mail approached Reifel for comment.
He says in a snippet of the trailer: 'I’m not a model, not an actor. I’m a police officer, actually.
'You could be having your worst day of your life, and I'll just help you sift through that,' he adds between dance moves and handstands while shirtless.
'The more thoughtful you are, I think that is so pretty. I love it.'
'The more thoughtful you are, I think that is so pretty. I love it,' he says in a snippet in between dance moves
'Officers are getting burnt out. It’s just a bad look to me,' his old police chief, Michelle Kott, told The Morning Call
The former officer is set to compete against a group of other young, attractive contestants in a villa in Fiji where participants couple up in order to win a potential $100,000.
Challenges and new people, known as 'bombshells,' seek to blow up their progress.
Season 8 premieres on Peacock on Tuesday. The season includes 12 cast members.
