Millville's police chief is retiring, and the next one will be a familiar face
MILLVILLE — Police Chief Jody Farabella will log his last shift on Feb. 1, 2023, and a city official says second-in-command Capt. Ross Hoffman will move into the position.
Hoffman was promoted to his current rank in June 2019. He joined the department after graduating the Vineland Police Academy in 2005.
City Commissioner Charles Kirk Hewitt on Monday said the city is not obligated to look outside the department for a chief, as long as its captain is qualified for the position.
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“And Ross is,” Hewitt said. “I’ve got all the confidence in the world in him. We’re just going to roll right through, seamlessly.”
Hewitt, who oversees the police force as the city Public Safety director, said the transition was decided on a couple months ago once Farabella determined he would retire.
Farabella was a captain and a 17-year veteran when he was picked, taking the chief’s position officially on Sept. 1, 2015. He succeeded Chief Thomas Haas, who had retired in March 2015.
Hewitt said a decision on who will replace Hoffman is not made.
“We don’t have to put a captain in the seat immediately,” Hewitt said. “But it will happen quick. But Ross is going to lead me on that decision, because he’s going to be the chief and he has to work well with his captain. That’s the way we plan on doing that.”
The commission plans an official retirement ceremony for Farabella, but the Police Athletic League delivered its own farewell at the Nov. 22 commission meeting.
League Treasurer Cindy Angelo said Farabella is a “rock star.”
Coming into his position, Farabella put his support behind efforts to increase the size and scope of the league. League officials say, even after difficulties operating in the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization still has more than 300 young people participating.
“As many of us would like to say, ‘He brought the “P” back to PAL,’” Angelo said. “And because of his leadership, and his tenacity, and his support of our program and the belief in building positive relationships with children in the city, we doubled — we doubled — our membership.”
“Being law enforcement for many years, there’s a lot of things that I look back, especially being part of 911 and the rescue effort, our chaplaincy program that we started, and obviously this PAL program,” Farabella said. “So, I think we left a good foothold for the Millville Police Department the last seven and a half years. I’m very proud of that.”
Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey more than 30 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.
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This article originally appeared on Vineland Daily Journal: Millville NJ police chief Farabella retiring, Hoffman next up
