One More Parade for Precinct Commander

East Hampton Town Lt. Christopher M. Hatch may be getting ready to retire, but he’s still plenty busy over the next few weeks as he makes the final preparations for the annual Montauk Friends of Erin St. Patrick’s Day parade on March 22.

Five days later — three years and four parades after being named the Montauk precinct commander — Lieutenant Hatch will turn over the post to Lt. Thomas Grenci.

While he is only 42, Lieutenant Hatch has put in 22 years on the force. He and his family will remain in East Hampton, and he will take over his father Paul Hatch’s business, West Harbor Transport, an East Hampton trucking business that transports bulk water. He has been working with his father for 25 years. In policing, he said, “I’ve accomplished a lot of my goals, and I’m ready to go and start something new that I can grow for the next 20 to 25 years,” he said.

Lieutenant Hatch has been with the town police since March 23, 1993. An East Hampton High School graduate, he went on to graduate from the Suffolk County Police Academy when he was 20 years old. “I didn’t turn 21 until a few months after I graduated. I think I was almost as young as you possibly could be to graduate and carry a gun,” he said while looking back on his career this week.

He spent 9 of 11 years as a patrolman in Montauk, before earning stripes in 2004 as the sergeant in charge of the patrol squad. In 2009, he was promoted to lieutenant. He has served as commander of the emergency services unit and has trained other enforcement agencies. He has been the department’s training officer and overseen instruction in defensive tactics, Taser use, firearms, use of a breathalyzer, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He is also an instructor evaluator. There is a chance, he said, that he may stay on as a part-time instructor.

Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo described him as a dedicated officer who brought specialized training courses to East Hampton and developed other police instructors from within the ranks. “He has always looked at training as a necessity to enhance and improve the quality of work by our officers. He continually looked for ways to increase training opportunities, while also finding creative ways to keep training costs to a minimum,” Chief Sarlo said.

Lieutenant Hatch graduated from the F.B.I. National Academy in 2013. He is also a longtime volunteer with the East Hampton Fire Department.

“His training expertise, as well as his professional approach to handling the many diverse issues facing a changing Montauk, will be sorely missed. Chris has been a good friend and outstanding member of our command staff, and we will miss him a great deal,” the chief added.

“I have no regrets,” Lieutenant Hatch said. “I love the job and the people that I work with,” he said, adding that he wanted to thank everyone who has helped him along the way, especially his family, his wife, a Montauk native, and his daughters.

Of his time in charge of the Montauk police annex, Lieutenant Hatch said he set out to improve the quality-of-life issues facing the ever-changing hamlet. “We’ve come a long way with code enforcement,” he said, pointing to taxi legislation and working with businesses to curb noise and crowding.

Lieutenant Hatch has worked every parade during his 22-year career except for one. “When I was a police officer, it was always something that was exciting, but very demanding, physically,” he said. As a supervisor and later as the incident commander, the concern for safety mounted, of course.

“Over all, it’s one of the biggest things that we do.” Though, he admitted the parade can be stressful. “I probably won’t miss it,” but said he might come back to simply enjoy the revelry next year.