David Hegermiller

The Riverhead Police Department monthly reports may not accurately reflect Riverhead's crime data, according to Supervisor Yvette Aguiar, who also serves as commissioner of the town police department. The supervisor said during the RiverheadLOCAL debate Thursday night she believes the department is “indexing crimes that are not necessarily the crime rate,” by including “very minor offenses” with the more serious crimes.

New York’s police reform agenda, a package of legislation and an executive order signed by the governor earlier this month, mandates significant changes in policing policies and practices in the state and imposes new requirements on local police agencies to work with their communities on policies and practices. How are local police departments handling compliance?

“You take this job and you want to be Superman,” Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller said in an interview today. “You become a cop because you want to help people, you want to protect them, you want to serve your community.”

Mary Komosinski, assistant to Police Chief David Hegermiller and a 36-year town employee served as assistant to four police chiefs, going back to 1987.

Special events closing town roads, motorists and bicyclists who ignore the rules, traffic hot spots and code enforcement were on the agenda Saturday morning.

The Riverhead Police Department, Officer Timothy Murphy, Riverhead CAP and the Riverhead Community Coalition for Safe and Drug-Free Youth were honored at the Mothers Against Drunk Driving 10th Annual N.Y. Metro Law Enforcement Recognition Awards Thursday.

New technology on the way to public safety dispatch offices in Suffolk County will help clear the confusion about responding to addresses in areas that border two jurisdictions, even when calls are made from cell phones.

Cue the theme song to Jaws. But this time it's all for a good cause: on March 10 Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter and Dave...

The chief's new $180,792 base salary — which is up $13,000 since 2013— only tells part of the story of his compensation package. Other payments, many of which are tied to his base pay rate, boosted his regular earnings to more than $215,000 last year — before a $112,000 sick and vacation time "buy back" brought his total compensation to more than $327,620 for 2014.

Some Riverhead officials have recently advocated changing police policy regarding undocumented immigrants. But some of the changes they have in mind are not only costly and difficult to implement, but illegal, according to the director of a local civil liberties group.