Toms River Township Council voted to approve an ordinance that counts U.S. military service toward the college requirement for new hires and permits lateral transfers from other police departments, and separately confirmed Captain Guy Mayer as chief of police.

Supporters said the changes will broaden an applicant pool during a statewide recruiting shortage; opponents warned the measure could lower hiring standards and urged the council to pause and study the plan.

The mayor, Dan Roderick, explained the ordinance at the meeting and tied it to recruiting difficulties. “I completely disagree with the notion that this is somehow lowering standards,” he said, saying veterans’ service should count in place of two years of community college for applicants who will still be screened and sent to the police academy.

Public comment ran more than two hours. Some veterans and residents supported crediting military service. Others — including a U.S. Marine who said his training emphasized a different use-of-force continuum — urged caution: “What I was trained to do was kill people very fastly and violently,” he said, warning that military rules of engagement differ from civilian policing.

The Ocean County prosecutor’s office sent a written objection, read into the record, saying that “any attempt to diminish the standards of hiring… will only serve to compound the problem” and warning that lowering educational, fitness or psychological requirements “poses a risk to public safety, community trust, and the integrity of the profession.”

Council members debated civil-service norms and local hiring authority. Supporters on the dais pointed to retirements and shortages and said the changes preserve fitness, medical and psychological screening and still require academy training. Opponents questioned whether the mayor and administrator’s role on interview committees and the expanded ability to accept lateral transfers could politicize hiring.

Council members then took separate formal actions: a roll-call vote confirmed the ordinance changing hiring rules (final tally recorded in the official minutes) and a separate resolution consenting to Mayor Roderick’s appointment of Captain Guy Mayer as chief of police. Several council members abstained or said they had concerns about timing; others praised Mayer’s long record of service and said he is “more than qualified.”

During Mayer’s swearing-in he did not offer a public opinion on the newly adopted hiring change; multiple speakers had asked the council during the meeting to defer hiring rule changes until the prospective chief had an opportunity to comment. The council president said the appointment and the hiring rule were separate decisions.

What’s next: the ordinance is in effect as adopted by the council; the municipal administration and police department will implement revised hiring procedures and the department will operate under Chief Guy Mayer’s leadership. The prosecutor’s office letter and public opposition make clear continuing scrutiny is likely, and several residents asked the council to publish details about the new interview committee and any updated recruitment and screening protocols.

Sources: mayor’s remarks and ordinance reading by the mayor and council at the Toms River Township Council meeting; public comments; a letter read into the record from the Ocean County prosecutor’s office.