Cops of the Year Are Named

The East Hampton Town and Village and Sag Harbor Village Police Departments recently named their police officers of the year.

For the town, Officer Luke McNamara was named. His choice was unusual, in that this past year was his first on the job. But in a proclamation read during last Thursday’s town board meeting it was revealed that Officer McNamara had led the department in total arrests, felony arrests, and citations written.

Two particular incidents were singled out. The first occurred on New Year’s Day 2015, when James Dunlop, a retired town fire marshal, was walking on Todd Drive in East Hampton and was attacked by two roaming pit bulls. Mr. Dunlop fell to the ground, and the dogs began mauling his hands.

Officer McNamara arrived within two minutes of a neighbor’s 911 call. After deploying his stun gun against one of the dogs, he was able to coax them into the back seat of his squad car.

Mr. Dunlop had suffered lacerations to his hands and four puncture wounds that cut right through. The East Hampton Village Ambulance Association transported him to Southampton Hospital.

The other incident was the arrest following a traffic stop of Kori Fleischman, 21, on major cocaine and heroin possession charges in November. The proclamation stated that the arrest “took a distributor of cocaine off our streets.” Ms. Fleischman has not yet been indicted by a grand jury.

East Hampton Village police named Steven Niggles, a six-year veteran of the force. It was his second time receiving the honor. According to Chief Gerard Larsen, Officer Niggles led the department in felony arrests, arrests on drug charges, and charges of driving while intoxicated. He was a member of the East End anti-drunken driving team, funded by the district attorney’s office. “He’s just a really good police officer,” Chief Larsen said yesterday.

Sag Harbor’s cop of the year is Randy Steyert. “He was hired here in November 2014 and is a local,” Chief Austin McGuire said yesterday. “He spent three years working for the N.Y.P.D. in Harlem before coming back home. He was recognized for overall outstanding police work and for handling the event that happened about a year ago on Hillside Drive East in Sag Harbor.”

In that incident, Ali Wisdom was accused of threatening his cousin with a gun and then shooting out a window before fleeing. About a month later he was captured trying to re-enter the country from Mexico.