Southampton Village Police Gets Permanent Chief

The interim chief of the Southampton Village Police Department has been tapped to run the agency permanently.

The village board of trustees passed a resolution hiring Suzanne Hurteau to serve as the department’s top cop, a role she has been filling temporarily for the past two years while the village sought a replacement. A key qualification was passing the recent civil service exam, Hurteau did.

The move came shortly after Bill Manger was sworn in as the new mayor. He unseated two-term Mayor Jesse Warren in June.

Hurteau has been acting chief since former longtime chief Thomas Cummings quit in September 2021 following an unusually public feud with Warren.

The village board — all but Warren — then voted in December to hire Suffolk County Police Deputy Commissioner Anthony Carter as a replacement, but the would-be chief quit after Warren publicly criticized him, too.

The Southampton Village Police Department has about 30 sworn members patrolling a 7.4-square-mile municipality that is home to more than 4,500 residents, making it the largest of the six village police departments across the Twin Forks.