The New Top Cop: Christopher Palmer Ascends to Post of Stone Harbor Police Chief
It’s logical, in retrospect, that Christopher Palmer would become Stone Harbor’s police chief.
Decades of leadership, mentoring, and high-profile roles had long nudged him up the administrative ladder. His journey spanned the ranks of police recruit, patrol sergeant, and captain, flanked by multiple decorations.
And in March, 22 years after joining the force, Palmer was sworn in by Mayor Tim Carney to a job he’d envisioned in stages.
“I had never really thought of the chief’s role before becoming captain,” he says, reflecting on the title he’d filled one step below the chief position from 2017-25. “Policing is a team effort. I just wanted to do my part.
“As a captain, I gradually started to get the foresight and feel the responsibility of being accountable in the position of chief. You start to think, ‘The department needs me,’ not in a way that nobody else can do it but in a way that you feel responsible to the community.”
Somewhere along the way, Palmer realized his training had prepared him for this role. Highly accomplished, he is a former member of the Cape May County Regional SWAT Team and president of his Cape May County Police Academy graduating class. He continues to instruct both firearms and water rescue at the Cape May County Police Academy.
Palmer received specialized training in many areas of police work. That includes methods of instruction, field training, criminal investigation, firearms, physical fitness, impaired driving, juvenile delinquency, school safety, special weapons and tactics, along with police supervision.
After becoming captain, Palmer also earned ribbons for merit, bravery, and lifesaving. He even garnered a chief’s commendation.
Now he has a chief’s job.
“It is an honor to be asked to be the caretaker of the community and to lead the men and women of the police department,” he asserts. “It is an honor to be entrusted with the safety of the residents and the visitors to this great community.
“We are aware of how wonderful Stone Harbor is.”
Palmer believes the chief sets the tone for the department and the captain directs efforts to carry that out. Palmer says he was blessed that predecessor Thomas Schutta, who served Stone Harbor for 30 years, gave him policy input. That reduced the transitional impact for Palmer’s new position. It’s a benefit because he has performed both roles for several months. As chief, Palmer has been operating without a captain, although he hopes to have one in early July.
“I was so fortunate to have Thomas Schutta as the chief when I was captain,” Palmer says. “I loved that guy, he was excellent. He let me have a say in where things were going and listened to my ideas. I don’t see many changes coming now. I have a community focus.”
That focus encompasses engagement with the public. Palmer relishes the first-name basis the department shares with many homeowners, the task of getting to know newcomers, and the ebb and flow between summer and other seasons.
“We are not just here to enforce law. Police work is about connection with the community,” he explains. “Hopefully the law enforcement end is greatly reduced through those procedures.
“We look first to hire a great person in our department. You can teach someone to be in law enforcement and you can teach them about police work, but you can’t teach them how to be a great individual,” he adds. “We offer the best training we can give people, enriching them and encouraging them to engage with the public. They become the best possible versions of themselves and you end up with the best police officers.”
Stone Harbor’s staff of 17 full-time officers, along with summer workers, address the unique realities of a summer town. The population may swell from 1,000 to 35,000 on some weekends. More people bring more logistics.
“You always want to provide top year-round service and that becomes more challenging in the summer,” Palmer notes. “Streets that were not so crowded are jam-packed. Residents you know all year on a first-name basis are joined by many more people, and you have to be aware of what that brings.
“When you go on vacation, you unplug from the daily grind, which is a normally a great thing. But when we unplug here, there are still a lot of people around. We still want everybody to wear a seat belt, we want you to be paying attention to people running, jogging, and biking. We ask the parents to know what their kids are doing and where they are. All of this helps.”
It’s fitting for Palmer to work in a shore resort. He grew up in Spring Lake and served more than a decade on its beach patrol. He participated in competitions that resembled life-saving procedures and considers that time a significant building block.
“It opened my eyes to public service,” he recalls. “I learned the value of prevention. From the lifeguard perspective, it can mean educating the public about rip currents, etc., so that your effectiveness on the patrol does not have to be measured by how many saves, but rather by how many times you don’t have to go in the water.
“With police work, it can be reminding people in a crowded town to lock their vehicles, not leave the keys in there, and be aware of what is going on around you, so that as a police department you are responding to fewer emergencies.
“Having done all of that, when you do get an emergency call, we remember that no matter what it is, even if may appear small to someone else, it’s a big matter to the person who has called it in. We take every one of those calls seriously.”
Palmer has long been a teacher, but a seismic event changed his audience. After attending Elizabethtown (Pa.) College and getting a master’s degree at Seton Hall, he was teaching English at the high school level when 9/11 occurred. Palmer realized he wanted to make a deeper contribution toward public safety.
“I was never interested in what people call normal jobs,” he says. “There’s something more rewarding for me in these types of vocational jobs. After 9/11, it took a little time to develop, but more and more I was drawn to the idea of service.”
Slowly, he traveled a route that brought him to Stone Harbor.
One joy of ascending to chief was celebrating the promotion with his family. Chris and his wife Melissa have three children, ranging from nine months to 18 years old. The family lives in Dennis Township, and while most of them have witnessed his long climb, there’s a feeling that the best is yet to come.
