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Police Chief Mark Kinmon [pictured above and at right] will continue with his plan to retire from the Asbury Park Police Department effective Jan. 1, 2014, he said.

Kinmon had announced his plans to retire in June. He had tossed the idea around in his mind beginning in December of last year, he said.

Prompted by multiple members of the community asking him to reconsider, from city officials to residents and even members of the police department, Kinmon considered rescinding his plans to retire.

While Kinmon informed council members last week of his thoughts to rescind his retirement papers, he never made a solid commitment to withdraw them, he said.

After Mayor Myra Campbell made public Kinmon’s reconsideration of his retirement, three other council members confirmed Kinmon also called them to discuss the possibility of his staying in the position.

“I didn’t intend to make that public,” he said. “Why the mayor made that public, I don’t know — it was her decision.”

December 31 remains Kinmon’s last official day on the job. He will begin to use about three months worth of accumulated leave time effective Oct. 1, at which time Captain David Kelso will take over as deputy chief, he said.

“Leaving the position was not an easy decision to make in the first place,” he said. “Hearing people ask me to stay made it that much more difficult, but, in the end, it’s just not working out that way.”

Originally from Howell, Kinmon, 45,  joined the county sheriff’s department when he was 20 years old. After two years with the sheriff, he transferred to Asbury Park in March of 1990 as a patrol officer and became chief of police in March of 2007.

Kinmon says he has a few options available to him after he leaves the department, but has not made any immediate decisions. He would not comment on whether any of those options are similar to his current line of work.

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