Stand aside Chief Brody, the cardboard fin boy from Jaws is new chief of police

In Oak Bluffs, MA one man can make a difference. The Martha’s Vineyard town is set to get a new chief of police in the shape Jonathan Searle, who appeared in Steven Spielberg's Jaws.

It was Jonathan, and his brother Steven, who played the two Amity pranksters with the fake cardboard fin that initially caused the mass panic on the beach ahead of the estuary attack and our first proper glimpse of the great white shark.

The boys were lucky to not get their heads shot off, and although their scene was short, like everyone else who appeared they have become Jaws icons.

Searle can now do anything he likes, he's gonna be the chief of police, and he has come a long way since causing panic on an Amity Island beach with a cardboard fin back in 1975.

Unlike Chief Brody, he is a native islander and has been a proud long-serving Edgartown police sergeant since 1986, where he has risen through the ranks.

Speaking to the Vineyard Gazette, Sergeant Searle said: “I’m clearly elated and I’m humbled and honored to have been offered the position. It’s something I’ve been working toward my whole career."

Jonathan Searle, an Edgartown sergeant shown here being filmed for a PSA, was selected as the next Oak Bluffs police chief. -Jeremy Driesen

Unbelievably, that career has also seen the former Jaws film hoaxer stop a shark hoaxer on a Martha's Vineyard beach some 33 years after Jaws was released.

The story was even recounted in the Vineyard Gazette in 2008, and saw Searle bust a man who was going round falsely trying to cause panic on the beach by telling people that he had seen a pair of great white sharks from a boat he hadn't even been on.

Photo credit Jeanna Shepard for Vineyard Gazette

Like Sean Brody did in Jaws the Revenge, Searle is also following in the footsteps of his dad. George Searle served as chief in Edgartown from 1981-1995.

That's not a bad record of police service from one family for this vicinity.

Ross Williams, founder of The Daily Jaws , said: "We are sure we speak for Jaws fans worldwide when we send Jonathan, the soon to be chief of police, our congratulations and wish him all the best in his forthcoming role. Hail to the future chief."

Words by Dean Newman

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