Aberdeen’s police union has praised the city’s ex-mayor for his contributions to law enforcement, even as the union still seeks a meeting with new mayor and ex-officer Michael Bennett.

This week, Lodge 128 of the Harford County Municipal Fraternal Order of Police honored former Mayor S. Fred Simmons, an insurance salesman who carried a gun and rode alongside police as they patrolled neighborhoods and executed search warrants, for his “never-ending support to the members of the police department and continuous support/dedication to public safety,” according to a union statement.

“We got large raises in his two years here, and we got new cars,” lodge President Detective David Swain said. “Aberdeen never got new cars before Simmons, but in his term we got seven.”

“We pretty much had the mantra from the beginning that you can’t have anything if you don’t have public safety,” Simmons said. “The people in Edgewood aren’t worrying about their water rate or their taxes if they’re worrying about whether a guy out on the street is carrying a gun.”

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The current mayor, a former state trooper and current civilian commander of the Maryland State Police electronics and communications division, took several weeks to respond to requests for a meeting with the police union, Swain said.

“I just don’t understand why the new mayor doesn’t want to sit down and talk to us,” he said.

Around Dec. 13, Bennett told Swain he did not believe it was necessary to meet with the union at that time, but Swain sent another letter requesting a meeting specifically to discuss changes to officers’ retirement benefits, Swain said.

Bennett said there were personal issues preventing him from scheduling a sit-down earlier in December.

“I’ll catch up with them as soon as I can, hopefully before the holidays are over,” Bennett said. By Wednesday afternoon, Swain said a meeting had been set for Friday morning.

The award for Simmons was not meant to be a message to Bennett, Swain said.

“We’d just like to get on with our business,” he said.

Aberdeen police recently received two awards from the state Department of Public Safety for two initiatives begun under Simmons: a system of cameras in high-crime areas and the Rapid Response Team targeting drug traffic in the Washington Street neighborhood.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com