Love Island USA’s Sean Reifel gets called out by a mayor for quitting his police job

Love Island USA is one of the steamiest shows on reality TV, and season 8 premiered tonight. The opening was full of bikinis, lip syncing, and a lot of dancing as the show met the men and women. For someone who has never watched the show before, it may have been a shocking experience. 

Hosted by Ariana Maddix, the contestants have a chance of falling in love and winning $100,000. One of the contestants the audience got to meet was Sean Reifel, a 29-year-old Pennsylvania native who made headlines before the show even started because of his career as a police officer.  

Fans were introduced to Reifel in the cast announcement, where he revealed, “I’m not a model, not an actor, I’m a police officer actually.” Once word made its way to Bethlehem, city officials shared their disappointment that he had left his job as a cop to go on the show.

© Bethlehem Police Department

Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds told local news  WHTM, “Our police department spent a lot of time training, and we paid thousands of taxpayer dollars to send him to the police academy.”  “We are disappointed he left as we now have another vacancy in our department that is impossible to fill until next year,” he continued.

The mayor went for one more sassy zinger, saying, “I never thought I’d see the day in America where reality show participation wins out over being a police officer.” 

According to local reports, officers in Bethlehem aren’t allowed to stay employed by the department while appearing on a reality show. So Reifel wasn’t on the show and still employed as an officer. 

© Peacock

On the show, Reifel arrived with a fresh white suit. He said he was from a “little bit of all over” as he listed a string of states like California, Wyoming, and Pennsylvania. “I’m actually a police officer,” he said with a giant smile, “when I’m not here.”

“I love my job, it’s super cool, you feel like you made a difference,” he said. The 29-year-old then went on to share that he gets hit on at work “all the time.” “Someone ran into me in the street and said my family and I forgot your name, so we call you ‘officer sexy pants,'” he said, “officer sexy pants was a hit at work.” 

Unfortunately, things don’t seem to end in his favor in episode 1. But there were 37 episodes in season 7 of the show, so viewers are in for the long haul to see if officer sexy pants finds love, money, or both.