OCEAN CITY, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — The mayor's office in Ocean City has made changes to the leadership of that town's beach patrol, as sexual harassment allegations against unnamed members of the patrol are being investigated.
Mayor Jay Gillian has appointed aid Michael Allegretto to oversee the patrol's daily operations.
An Instagram account called ocbp_predators, about some members of the Ocean City Beach Patrol, was created last week. As of Monday afternoon, the account had 6,300 followers.
The very first post starts off by claiming “OCBP has more pedophiles in power than not.”
It goes on to accuse some male lifeguards of preying on underage girls on the beach, with some of those girls being fellow lifeguards. The accusations seem to be directed toward senior guards, men in their 30s or older.
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The creator of this account is anonymous. They ask people to message the account to share stories of experiences they’ve had in the past with Ocean City lifeguards “if you believe these men should be held responsible.”
The rest of the posts that were supposedly sent to the account are stories from alleged victims.
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Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian initialy issued the following statement on the city’s website addressing these allegations:
“The city was made aware this week of an Instagram account that describes predatory and sexually harassing behavior among members of the Ocean City Beach Patrol. The account includes anonymous posts about unnamed individuals inside and outside the workplace.
"The Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office has begun to investigate the allegations that have been posted there. Investigators urge anyone with information or who has been a victim to contact the Prosecutor’s Office at 609-465-1135, report it anonymously through the Cape May County Sheriff’s Tip Line at cmcsheriff.net (click on “anonymous tip”), or call Cape May County Crime Stoppers at 609-889-3597.
"The city has strict sexual harassment policies and procedures in place and acts immediately on every reported complaint.
"I have directed Fire Chief Jim Smith to build on existing policies and do whatever it takes to ensure employees feel safe coming forward.
"I want to continue to make sure all our city team members work in a safe environment.”
KYW Newsradio reached out to the Ocean City Beach Patrol chief to see if he would like to comment further. We received an email back from a city spokesman. He sent us a statement reiterating what Mayor Gillian said.