Southampton Town PD Hits Record Staffing Level To Meet Demands of 'Police Service'

The Southampton Town Board last week approved — and applauded — the appointment of Alonso Redondo to the Town Police Department.

A 26-year-old native of Bay Shore, Redondo, who has already worked as a police officer in Bristol, Connecticut, and recently graduated from the NYPD’s police academy, is a fluent Spanish speaker and a valuable new asset to the department, Chief James Kiernan said.

He also becomes the department’s 110th uniformed officer, making it the largest force the town has ever fielded.

In the last three years, the Town Board has funded the expansion of the department from a low of just 97 uniformed personnel, which Kiernan said had hamstrung the department’s ability to keep up with growing demands for police to attend to quality-of-life issues and not just crime and public safety.

“Law enforcement for the [Southampton Town Police Department] is better called ‘police service,’” Kiernan said. “We are very good at preventing crime. Law enforcement is only one thing we do. The community wants us to slow down speeding vehicles … [do more] community engagement, [and] partnerships with schools. Mental health and deescalation makes calls for service more time consuming. The Town Board is growing the department to meet those demands.”

In her first two budgets since taking over the town’s top post, Supervisor Maria Moore has added seven new officers to the department’s ranks — with three more to join in 2026, bringing the total force to 113 uniformed officers and supervisors.

“I’ve supported the expansion of the police department in the last two budgets. I see it as an investment in the safety of our town and its residents and visitors,” Moore said this week. “Southampton Town, in terms of population, is now the largest it’s ever been. For years, our police ranks have not kept pace with the growth in our community, and this has resulted in a depletion of our per capita police services.

“There’s a lot of territory to cover and a lot of people to protect. The public has consistently stressed the importance of public safety, and this administration has been responsive to their concerns.”

In 2022, the Town Police budget totaled $25.2 million. In the recently adopted 2026 budget, the department’s share will be $33.6 million, of which $29.6 million goes to salaries and benefits for its officers. Kiernan again will be the town’s highest-paid employee, with a salary of $285,000. The 2026 budget also includes some $400,000 for the purchase of a BearCat armored vehicle for the department.

The chief said the rising staffing levels have helped the department field a much more effective and appropriately organized unit. The officers added in the last two years will allow the department to deploy a second school resource officer, dedicate a team to traffic enforcement, add a patrol car to the districts east of the Shinnecock Canal, and put a uniformed sergeant on the road with patrol squads more often.

“For years, we have been on patrol without a sergeant out with the POs on half the shifts,” Kiernan said. “We have good people, but they should not be making supervisory decisions. Also, having that close supervision motivates officers to be their best. Over the past several years, we have been able to shrink that lack of patrol supervision from 40 percent of shifts to 30 percent.”

Kiernan said the department is already budgeted for two more sergeants, but he was waiting to get more uniformed officers on the beat before making new promotions. Once the new sergeants are in place, he said 80 percent of the shifts will have a sergeant out on the road with the patrol squad.

He said that when the force reaches 113 next year, the department should be able to assign an extra patrol unit east of the Shinnecock Canal. Currently, the department has between seven and nine cars working east of the canal, which will be increased to at least eight and as many as 10 cars during times of peak demand.

“We are definitely proud to say the growth helps us provide better service,” he said. “Crime prevention, speed enforcement, safe roads, school and youth engagement — community police service.”

Redondo was sworn in on November 25 with his parents looking on in the People’s Room at Southampton Town Hall, where Kiernan welcomed him and his family to the department’s fold. He will be the department’s eighth Spanish-speaking officer.

“Sonja and Miguel, I want to tell you that you are part of our police family now as well,” Kiernan said to Redondo’s parents, inviting them to come tour the department’s facilities. “We are going to provide your son with the best training we possibly can give him, and we’re going to give him the best equipment and everything he needs to do this difficult job so he comes home safe every day.”