It’s a career route that around 20 percent of veterans have taken when their military service is up: Join a municipal police force and transition from overseas warrior to domestic peacekeeper.
There are upsides and potential downsides when it comes to hiring veterans, says East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo, who oversees a force of 66 full-time uniformed officers that includes a handful of former active service members.
“I understand the dual views and the pros and cons associated with transition from military service to municipal law enforcement,” said Chief Sarlo via email this week. “We focus on the positive aspects, such as discipline, calm, and a professional approach of someone who has had the determination and will to successfully complete military training and serve our country honorably.”
The challenge, said the chief, is in “keeping an eye on the potential pitfall of the warrior mentality. For the most part, our department culture of community policing and de-escalation make that a non-issue. We have quality people, who have a willingness to serve the community and take the opportunity to transition into a different form of service with a positive approach.”
One of those quality people is the former Navy SEAL Denis Shea, who has been a police officer with the town since 2011. The Montauk resident, who left the Naval Reserve in May, was on active duty starting in 1998, and joined the local police force immediately after his discharge on Dec. 26, 2011.
Over his military career, Officer Shea deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and various ports of call in Africa, including Liberia in 2003, when he assisted with the U.S. Embassy evacuation that year.
“So, for the most part in the military — when you get there you’re always getting ready for war, especially in the SEAL teams,” said Officer Shea, 47, by phone this week. He contrasted that experience with the peacekeeper role he now plays with the local police force — and described a transition process that “was a little tough.”
“Initially it wasn’t hard,” he said, “The military bearing and the weapons, that goes hand in hand. But when you went in to hit a target with the SEALS — we’re going to win. You didn’t have a 15-year-old telling you to go eff yourself.”
In military parlance, the “rules of engagement” are radically different for domestic peacekeepers than for active-duty service members in a hostile and foreign land. The SEALs, he said, “were going against people with weapons who want to kill you and hurt your country, as opposed to in policing, where it’s people who are down on their luck, or just kids, not a grown-up using their head. You’re not going to ‘win,’ you’re going to keep the peace and alleviate the situation.”
His favorite part of the job, said Officer Shea, is the camaraderie among officers, “and the helping is great.” Least favorite? He’s not so hot on having to issue all those traffic tickets.
Returning veterans may suffer from P.T.S.D. or traumatic brain injury, adding a profound wrinkle for law enforcement agencies looking to recruit veterans.
Officer Shea, who did not experience either affliction, pointed out that veterans returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan have a range of support services that just didn’t exist for those who fought in World War II, Korea, or Vietnam.
Policing, however, comes with traumas and stresses all its own — the old trope is that you’re pretty much dealing with people in crisis and at their worst, on a day-by-day basis. Officers are usually first on the scene in serious car accidents or other catastrophes that can come with bloodshed, burns, and death.
“As far as seeing bad stuff,” said Officer Shea, “that stuff is going to happen, and you have to roll with the punches.”
Patrick Royal also works as a police officer for the town. He has been on the force since 2018 after a career in the Coast Guard. Officer Royal had a unique advantage given his service with the Coast Guard, which is the only one of the five military branches that can execute federal law over civilians without a decree of martial law.
To that extent, said Officer Royal, there are similarities between service in the Coast Guard and on the police force. “You’re looking out for drunks on the water, there are rescues at sea of civilians, drug arrests.” He also performed police functions while deployed overseas, working in counter-piracy and “teaching the Iraqis how to be a better Coast Guard for themselves.”
“The law enforcement background from the military really did translate quite easily into being a police officer,” said Officer Royal, who initially worked as a town harbormaster for a year before going to the police academy.
Officer Royal, 36, who hails from South Boston, joined the Coast Guard in 2005, having committed himself to join the service as a high schooler after the events of Sept. 11, 2001. He served in Hawaii (“Boston with palm trees”), then at Coast Guard Station Montauk for three years beginning in 2006, then in Iraq, where he was homeported at a U.S. military installation in Bahrain. Returning stateside, he served in North Carolina and then in New Hampshire before moving back to the East End. Officer Royal’s wife is from the area.
Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C., lawmakers created the Department of Homeland Security and put the Coast Guard under that multiagency umbrella — creating a somewhat bifurcated role for the branch, which was tasked, as before, to deal with civilian issues in local waters, but now also faced deployments to Iraq and other conflict zones.
“That’s right, we were under D.H.S.,” said Officer Royal, “but while we were there, we were essentially on loan to the Department of Defense.”
The big difference between military and civilian law enforcement, he said, was that in the Coast Guard “you are a much smaller cog in the machine — and when you’re a smaller cog, you don’t see the end result as much, you don’t really see it until the end. But on the local level in policing, you get to see things to the end and have an effect on the community in both positive and negative ways — and by negative, I mean you have encounters with people who get arrested.”
Officer Royal echoed some of what his colleague Officer Shea said when it comes to unpleasant encounters with civilians who may be suspicious of police and policing.
The divisiveness gripping this nation extends to views on law enforcement that may be impacted by events such as George Floyd’s death or the advent of far-right “Constitutional sheriffs” and the domestic terrorists who call themselves the Oath Keepers, who often draw from the ranks of the military and law enforcement.
“The great thing about this country is that the First Amendment goes a long way,” said Officer Royal. “Some people like to tell cops, eff you, go eff yourself, it is true — but in the military you don’t really have that because the show of force is just so much larger. Here, on the street, it’s just one or two guys. When you show respect, you get respect. Every once in a while you’ll get anti-cop folks, but those are generally people who are running into the police more often anyway. Ninety-nine percent of the people out here love the police — they are happy to see you, glad you are out there.”
But in East Hampton, said Officer Royal, just as in Iraq, “you can’t win the hearts and minds of everybody.”
