About Sean Riggin
(RET) CHIEF SEAN RIGGIN
CEO, Bluestone Services
(Ret) Chief Sean Riggin began his career in government service in 1994. He served in the United States Army Special Operations Command as a Civil Affairs Specialist, Arab Linguist, and later as an Engineer, visiting numerous countries during his service including a tour in Sarajevo Bosnia during the Bosnian conflict.
Entering law enforcement in 1998, Sean served first as a Corrections Officer and Drill Instructor, and later as a Pleasantville police officer. During the course of his career Sean has specialized in the areas of street crime interdiction and community outreach, leading the department’s street crime initiative for five years and serving as the community liaison from 2009 until he was appointed as chief of police in 2015.
Upon appointment as Chief of Police, Sean initiated the area’s first ever Police-Community Advisory Board and invited NAACP, National Action Network, the Fellowship of Churches, and Coalition for a Safe Community to receive a comprehensive monthly briefing on the operations of the department. The board is a result of Sean’s dedication to the belief that effective policing for today’s society is inclusive, educated, and ethical. The board continues to meet regularly and is open to the public.
In 2016, Sean and Jim Schroeder III Esq, founded the Pleasantville Police Foundation to facilitate additional community engagement as well as to create a chartering organization for the re-establishment of Police Explorer Post #100, which had been closed in 2002. The Police Foundation has proven to be a significant asset to the Pleasantville community, co- funding the department’s acquisition of Body Cameras, K9 dogs, outreach events and local scholarships.
In 2017, Sean volunteered to aid the rescue mission in the Caribbean, first deploying personally to St. John in the US Virgin Islands in the immediate wake of Hurricane Irma, then helping to coordinate a response to Hurricane Maria with the New Jersey State Police deployment of police officers from Pleasantville.
In 2018 Sean was asked to assume command of the Pleasantville Fire Department as the City’s Fire Director to oversee the reorganization of a 40-member professional firefighting organization. He was also appointed to oversight roles for Emergency Management and the City’s Joint Insurance Fund as its Fund Commissioner, eventually assuming command responsibility for over 100 full-time employees and more than $10M annual budget.
In 2020, Sean joined Team Rubicon, a volunteer led humanitarian organization and has served in a variety of deployment roles from Incident Commander to Brush-Dragger and serves as the South Jersey Field Readiness Coordinator. In this role, he continues to serve with other veterans and leaders to get things done in high-vulnerability communities in challenging environments.
In 2021, Sean opened the City’s first Emergency Operations Center in order to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the course of the response, Sean served as Incident Commander as well as Police Chief and Fire Director, ensuring a continuity and cohesion of services that allowed the community to survive and thrive in the disaster environment.
Upon retiring in 2022, Sean attended the University of Delaware School of Public Policy, earning a Master of Science in Disaster Science and Emergency Management. Sean continues to apply the skills and training learned over a lifetime of public service to serve public and private clients as the CEO and a leadership consultant for Bluestone Services. The firm, like Sean, seeks to work with partners who are experiencing a crisis; to be a client’s best friend on their worst day.
Sean has served in a variety of partnership and leadership roles including as President of the Atlantic County Association of Chiefs of Police, Chairman of the Police Training Advisory Board of Atlantic County, Chairman of the Pleasantville Housing Authority Program Coordinating Committee, as well as executive board positions for the Coalition for a Safe Community, the Men of Pleasantville, the Jewish Family Services Advisory Board, Boy Scout Troop 26, the NJ State Chiefs’ Command and Leadership Academy, and other non-profit organizations.
Sean is married to his high-school sweetheart, Larissa and the couple has two great kids, Andrea and Sam. The family enjoys traveling, playing games, and hiking. Sean is a fair backpacker and a terrible golfer.
