Shelter Island hires first female officer in more than a decade as part of state's reform mandate

The Shelter Island Police Department has hired a woman to join its force for the first time in more than a decade as it vies to become more diverse and meet one of the goals in its 2021 state-mandated police reform plan.

Taylor Rando, 24, started in November, the first time there has been a woman in the 10-member department since 2010, said Chief James Read.

"There are circumstances where we need specifically a female officer to be involved in, and she enables us to do a better job at delivering a better service to our community," Read said.

Shelter Island, with a year-round population of 3,253, according to the 2020 U.S. Census, is by far the smallest of Long Island’s 13 towns. Along with Southampton, Southold, Riverhead and East Hampton, it is served by its own police department. The town is also one of the least diverse, with just 21 Black residents and 289 Hispanic residents, according to the Census.

The department will also push to hire its first Hispanic officer, in part by recruiting traffic control officers, a summer part-time position, from the local high school, according to Read. That’s where Rando, a Shelter Island High School graduate who studied fashion design at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, got her start. She was then encouraged by department members — including a cousin, Officer Anthony Rando — to take the entrance exam.

Living on the tight-knit island supports a community-based approach to policing that highlights problem solving and maintaining respect during interactions, Taylor Rando said.

"Most of the calls I’m going to are people that I already know, or they know me," said Rando, whose annual salary is $66,120. "So, I think we have good relationships with the people that we interact with."

Nationally, women represent a small fraction of police officers.

NYU Policing Project’s 30x30 initiative seeks to raise the percentage of female police officers nationwide to 30% by 2030. It’s currently 12%, according to the initiative. Research suggests women are less likely to use deadly force or fire weapons and can better interact with more diverse cultural groups, it says.

Interdepartmental relationships were once more challenging to establish, according to Rando’s predecessor.

Patricia McGayhey became the town’s first female officer in 1988 and served for two summers before taking a full-time job with the Nissequogue Police Department, about 60 miles to the west. She has spent more than 30 years in Nissequogue and now works for the 23-member department part time.

McGayhey recalled not feeling totally welcomed in Shelter Island back in the day — not explicitly discriminated against, but not necessarily part of the department’s in-crowd. She eventually felt a family atmosphere in Nissequogue, but said it took a few years before feeling totally at ease with her colleagues. She was the fist woman there, although others have since been hired.

McGayhey said she relied on the mentorship of her brother, Shelter Island Police Officer David McGayhey, and her training to make it. She offered up the following of advice to Rando: "Stay strong, treat people how you would want to be treated and you really can’t go wrong."