Longtime cop got secure police data for personal reasons, prosecutor says

LONG BEACH — A longtime police officer has been charged with using his department's computer to access secure data for personal reasons.

Sgt. Gerard Traynor, 52, who has addresses in Beach Haven and Galloway, was charged with two counts of criminal activity, according to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer.

It wasn't clear from information released by the prosecutor's office how he allegedly used the information, or whose information he is accused of accessing. Prosecutor's office spokesman Brian Hunterberg said Traynor had been accessing the data over a period of five or six months.

He is also a practicing attorney and president of the Fraternal Order of Police Long Beach Island Lodge 5.

Hunterberg said Traynor had been suspended but wasn't sure if he continued to get paid.

Traynor has been with the department for 25 years and was earning a salary of $139,180, according to public employee files.

According to the Press, Traynor and the township have a contentious history — he sued the township twice in 2018 to try to overturn a suspension for conducting legal business while on duty, and alleging retaliation against him for off-duty remarks he made about the state response to superstorm Sandy.

Traynor is the second officer in a leadership position to be charged with a crime. Ocean Township (Monmouth) officer Ryan Vaccaro, president of PBA Local 57, was arrested after being found with more than 100 dosage units of Clenbuterol, an animal drug used by bodybuilders, police say.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ

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