Dan O’Pella recently retired as Haddonfield patrol sergeant after 26 years on the force.
Dan O’Pella said walking through the doors of the Haddonfield Police Department for the last time on the job after 26 years with the force was a heavy moment for him.
“I was so emotional walking out of there,” O’Pella said.
O’Pella, who retired as the Haddonfield Police Department’s patrol sergeant on July 31, said what he’ll miss most about his time is the daily interactions with the Haddonfield community. Having lived in Haddonfield for nearly his whole life, the most fulfilling part of patrol work has always been the people.
O’Pella grew up on Rhoads Avenue. Simply put, he said serving the community was just something he always had an interest in. When he left Haddonfield to study history at Villanova University, O’Pella joined the ROTC program with the intention to serve in the military.
Circumstances had O’Pella leave Villanova before completing his degree. He worked at General Electric for a time before becoming a corrections officer for the Camden County Sheriff’s Department. Around 1989, O’Pella was hired by the Delaware River Port Authority, who put him through the police academy.
O’Pella worked traffic detail on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge for one year before hearing back from Haddonfield. He said he was living in Haddon Township at the time and was eager to return to his hometown.
“It was a big change, and I honestly feel like I [made] more of a difference here than I could working traffic detail for the bridge,” O’Pella said.
For O’Pella, working the bridge became rote, but Haddonfield offered a dynamic array of experiences. He said he always wanted to be a patrol officer because he felt working the streets was where he could make the greatest impact.
In patrol, there was no typical day, but the variety of calls were always what made the job interesting. O’Pella said one of his fondest memories is working CPR on an infant, whose life was saved by his first aid. He received a card from the child’s mother thanking him every Mother’s Day for the five years that followed.
Reaching out to Haddonfield youth was another facet of the job O’Pella looks back on fondly. He said he took every opportunity to show kids police are approachable. He said he would thank a young bicyclist for wearing a helmet or offer to show kids the inside of the squad car.
Looking back on his two decades with the force, O’Pella said patrol taught him a lot about human nature. He said when a police officer comes to someone’s door, it’s almost always because something in their day has gone horribly wrong, and for that reason, he often saw people at their most vulnerable.
“It’s a range of emotions you see — how people can go from completely distraught to if you just talk to them and you can get them calmed down,” O’Pella said.
The reverse was often true as well. O’Pella said officers often have to learn to think on their feet when a calm person turns volatile.
O’Pella’s own experiences dealing with adversity often shaped his approach. Having lost both of his parents within a year of each other as well as losing his first wife to cancer 10 years ago showed him he could take his own difficult experiences and channel them into a compassionate approach when interacting with emotional residents.
“Police work — you’re a student of human nature on permanent fellowship,” O’Pella said.
O’Pella said police work can often be hours of boredom punctuated by minutes of excitement, but the moments of action were always meaningful.
“I’ve always gotten the feeling that the citizens appreciate what we do,” O’Pella said.
In 1997, O’Pella wanted to take his desire to serve even further, and he enlisted in the Navy reserves. He said he had always wanted to finish the ROTC training he hadn’t completed, and so he enlisted at the age of 30. Today, he is one of only 4 percent of sailors in the Navy to have made the rank of chief petty officer.
In contrast to living and working in South Jersey for much of his life, the reserves deployed O’Pella to Central America, the Middle East and Antarctica. He said he always thought law enforcement was probably the most exciting thing a person could do, but sitting out on the water in a danger zone, knowing something bad was going to happen proved him wrong.
Two years ago, O’Pella was deployed on a cargo supply mission to Antarctica when a container on a crane swung loose, knocking him onto the ship’s deck and resulting in injuries to his shoulder, knee and collar bone, which would result in extensive reconstructive surgery for O’Pella.
With 50 approaching and his Antarctic injuries making patrol a little more difficult than it once was, O’Pella said he felt like it was the right time to retire. While he will no longer be a police officer, O’Pella said he’s not through serving. He said he wants to take his police and naval expertise and channel it into a new way to serve people — though he’s not sure what that will be yet.
In the meantime, looking back on the last 26 years has left O’Pella with a deep sense of fulfilment.
“I like thinking that at some point I’ll look back and have left the world a better place than I started out,” O’Pella said.
