In the East Hampton’s town and village police departments, internal investigations determined that a handful of complaints against police officers since mid-2020 were valid and grounds for discipline — but nothing that called for a prolonged suspension or termination.
The Express News Group obtained the disciplinary records through Freedom of Information requests initiated in February.
Police misconduct records were previously shielded from disclosure under 50-a, a section of New York Civil Rights Law, but the State Legislature repealed 50-a in 2020 as part of a statewide police reform and accountability effort. The Express News Group has since requested local police disciplinary records on a periodic basis.
In the East Hampton Village Police Department, a sergeant forfeited five days of leave time in June 2022 after the department found that in December 2021 the sergeant made a delivery in a police SUV that had nothing to do with police business. The discipline notice states the sergeant delivered business documents to a private residence, on behalf of a second person. The officer’s use of a marked police vehicle and uniform concerned the resident who received the documents, according to the notice.
“The complaint was informal … but nonetheless required investigation and command discipline,” the notice states.
In October 2021, a Village Police officer agreed to forfeit five days of leave time after the department found he did not wear a face mask on a number of occasions during traffic stops between October 2020 and September 2021. The discipline notice said the officer had failed to obey a department order.
A civilian complaint taken in April 2021 in person at Village Police headquarters states that the complainants were having a conversation about an accident when the officer, who was in a vehicle completing an accident information exchange form, said “Hey you guys, do me a favor and shut the f--- up.”
The officer did not want the complainants to agitate the driver of the other vehicle involved in the accident, the complaint form filled out by a sergeant states. It also states that the officer apologized.
The complainants also shared a video with the police department, and a lieutenant wrote that he viewed the video and found the allegation to be true. The officer agreed to forfeit one day of accrued leave time to resolve the matter.
In the East Hampton Town Police Department, a sergeant gave up an unspecified amount of accumulated leave time after a substantiated complaint that he engaged in harassment while off-duty in July 2022.
A Town Police officer received a written reprimand after leaving her post in February 2022 without notifying a supervisor, desk officer or public safety dispatcher. The following month, an officer assigned to “home confinement/injured on duty status” left his “post” and was disciplined in the form of lost accrued leave time.
An officer lost accrued leave time after, in September 2020, “becoming argumentative, agitated and being disrespectful toward her immediate supervisor.” Three days after that incident, the officer was late for her shift; for that, she was issued a written reprimand. And the following month, the officer was the subject of command discipline again, this time for contacting a senior staff supervisor without approval from a sergeant, and upon reaching the senior staff member, was “insubordinate and disrespectful.” She was penalized with the loss of leave time.
The Town Police also provided the outcome of investigations that exonerated officers who were the subjects of complaints. In one case, a civilian alleged an officer stopped and questioned him solely based on his race, and an investigation by a senior staff member found the complaint was unsubstantiated. Another officer was cleared after being accused of not thoroughly investigating an aggressive/erratic driver complaint in February 2022.
