James D. Hawkins was sworn in as the Chief of Police on September 9, 2021. Chief Hawkins has served with the Little Egg Harbor Police Department for over 26 years, beginning his career as a patrolman in January 1998. Throughout his career, Chief Hawkins has held several positions within the agency. Initially, he was assigned to the patrol division where he worked uniform patrol until being promoted to Sergeant in February 2004.
As a Patrol Sergeant, he supervised a patrol squad from 2004 to 2007. From 2007 to 2010 he served as the Administrative Sergeant in charge of training. In 2010 he was assigned to supervise the School Resource Officer unit and served as an SRO until being promoted to Lieutenant in May 2014.
As Lieutenant, he served as the Patrol Division Commander before being reassigned as the Administrative Division Commander in 2015.
As the Administrative Division Commander, Hawkins duties included professional standards, Internal Affairs, training and hiring. Hawkins was the department’s first accreditation manager who successfully led the agency to its first awarded accreditation in 2018. In July 2018, Hawkins was promoted to Captain where he served as Operations Commander until being promoted to Chief of Police in September 2021.
Chief James D. Hawkins
(609)296-3666 ext. 332