OC Police Captain Off To Iowa

OCEAN CITY -- Continuing an experience drain at the top levels of the Ocean City Police Department, longtime Captain Robert Bokinsky has accepted the position of police chief for the city of Pella, Iowa.

Bokinsky is a 32-year law enforcement veteran with extensive experience in criminal investigation, patrol and administration. Prior to accepting the position in Pella, Bokinsky had been a captain with the OCPD and served as a division commander for the last 11 years.

The city of Pella hired Moulder and Associates, a professional law enforcement consulting firm, to conduct a search for the new police chief after the previous chief resigned. Pella selected Bokinsky from a short list of three candidates for the chief position presented by Moulder and Associates after a 90-day national recruitment campaign.

“This was an enormous process that included significant citizen input,” City Adminstrator Mike Nardini told Town Crier News in Iowa. “The results were that any one of the three final candidates would have been an asset to the city of Pella. It was a difficult choice. We had to go with the candidate who most closely matched the needs of the department.”

Bokinsky joined the OCPD in May 1979 while he continued his education at Salisbury University. He spent several summer seasons in the department’s Boardwalk division and as supervisor of the Noise Enforcement unit. He was selected OCPD Officer of the Year in 1986 and shortly thereafter was promoted to sergeant. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1991 and was assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division, where he served until 1998.

After assignments as a Midnight Watch Commander and Assistant Commander of the Patrol Division, Bokinsky was promoted to captain in October 2000 and was named the agency’s night commander. In the fall of 2001, Bokinsky was reassigned as the commander of the Administrative Division. He was transferred back to the Criminal Investigation Division in September 2005 and served as the Division Commander before recently accepting the position in Iowa.

Bokinsky’s departure from the OCPD to accept the chief of police position in Iowa continues a recent exodus of some the department’s most veteran officers for a variety of reasons. Just last month, five longtime officers with a combined experience total of 158 years with the department, including a captain and a lieutenant, retired to take advantage of the department’s early retirement program.