Apr 10, 2013 12:51 PM

Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst this week called on the town to hire its own investigators to take an independent look into the management of the Town Police Department, in the past and present.

After months of accusations from within the department and elsewhere about a variety of improprieties, including a now year-long investigation by the Suffolk County district attorney’s office, Ms. Throne-Holst asked other members of the Town Board on Thursday afternoon, April 4, to consider hiring an outside firm to take a comprehensive look at the department’s management structure and style, and specific allegations that have been leveled from a variety of sources over the last 18 months.

The investigation, she said, would have to do everything ranging from examining the policies and procedures of the police department down to a forensic investigation of evidence from an internal department investigation going missing, and the circumstances that led to the D.A.’s office to drop charges against five accused felons who were arrested by Town Police.

The myriad claims have been interwoven over the last two years with charges of political meddling, shredding of files and sexual discrimination by the department’s top brass.

“All of these questions are swirling, and I feel like no matter what we say we’re not going to reassure the public until we have a third-party, independent explanation,” Ms. Throne-Holst said. “I want to reassure myself and the public that we have followed proper procedures, and that that’s what we have in place in our department, and that any or all possible additional fallout from whatever is out there is looked at.”

The supervisor said that Town Board members agreed in a closed-door executive session on Thursday to begin drafting a specific scope of the things such an investigation would look at or for, individually. Ms. Throne-Holst said she would like to get the investigation started as soon as possible, but that she could not guess as to how long the work would take.

Later in the week, however, other members of the board were still skeptical of the idea of, or the need for, an independent investigation. The issues thought to be at the heart of concerns that might spur a call for such an investigation—discipline of officers, internal oversight, evidence handling procedures and attendance policies—are more of the sort that Councilman Jim Malone thought were better handled internally.

“The majority of these things are manageable through the confidence we place in the department head,” he said. “If at some point in time we don’t feel we are comfortable about what we’ve got there, then you say, ‘We’re going to check your stuff.’ We’re not there at this point—not from my perspective.”

Councilwoman Bridget Fleming said that she thought it important to present clear evidence that the Town Board had done their due diligence in investigating some of the allegations that have swirled around the department in recent months and show that they were addressed in an unbiased manner. But she said she is not convinced that hiring an outside firm to do it is the correct path forward yet.

“I think it would certainly serve the public well to be able to move forward in a clean way,” she said. “We want to give the police the opportunity to operate without the appearance of impropriety or undue influence. That’s where I want to go. I’m not sure how we should get there exactly yet.”

The department’s chief, Robert Pearce, himself said that he is fully supportive of an independent look at the department’s practices and policies.

“I’m in favor and supportive of that and will assist in any way my office can assist with the investigation,” said Chief Pearce, who took over the department in December 2012. “The assessment would be most welcome. It’s good to get an impartial view of what’s happened over the last several months.”

The town has contracted two prior outside assessments of its department. In 2003, a firm led by celebrated former New York City and Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton was hired by the town to conduct an organizational and operational assessment of the department.

Last year, the town also hired the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani—founded by former New York City Mayor Rudolf Giuliani, under whom Mr. Bratton was chief of police—to examine the records of hundreds of arrests of accused criminals, most drug dealers, who were arrested by a town officer who was later discovered to have a substance abuse problem. The results of the report issued by the firm have never been released by town officials despite numerous requests by The Press; the officials claim the substance of the report concerns delicate legal topics with regard to the potential for the town to be sued, and thus are not subject to open records laws.