Former NYPD chief named new Muttontown police chief

A former New York City police chief has been named the new head of the Muttontown Police Department, village officials said.

Phil T. Pulaski, a Glen Cove resident who retired last year as the NYPD's chief of detectives, was appointed chief of the 12-officer department on Aug. 1, village Mayor Julianne Wesley Beckerman said.

Pulaski, 63, will earn an annual salary of $200,000, Beckerman said, but won't receive health or retirement benefits from the village. Pulaski replaces former Chief William McHale, who previously was a Nassau County police officer and also was paid a yearly salary of $200,000. He did not receive a payout of vacation or sick days upon his retirement, village officials said.

The 4-year-old Muttontown force has an annual budget of about $2.7 million.

A 33-year veteran of the NYPD who commanded both the Intelligence Division and Counterterrorism Bureau, Pulaski retired in March 2014 amid a brass shake-up after the appointment of William Bratton as commissioner.

Pulaski, who made an annual salary of $199,000 when he left the NYPD, then landed a job at former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly's Manhattan-based consulting firm, Cushman & Wakefield Risk Management Services. Pulaski was not available for a formal interview, but said Friday that he no longer works with the firm.

"We were very, very fortunate he was available at the time that our chief was looking to retire," Beckerman said. "Without a doubt his management skills are outstanding. His knowledge, of not only the law but of people, and communities, and what their priorities are, were very impressive."

Beckerman said it's not a requirement that the police chief live in Muttontown.

"Our prior chief didn't and none of our officers live in the village," she said.

Pulaski's NYPD pension benefits were not immediately accessible.

Muttontown is hardly a hotbed of crime. The affluent village had just one burglary in 2012, compared with four the previous year, records show.

Muttontown left what is now the six-village Old Brookville Police Department after more than three decades in May 2011 and formed its own force. The separation, spurred by Muttontown's dissatisfaction with contributing about 25 percent of the policing consortium's budget, resulted in layoffs in Old Brookville and an ugly legal fight over records.

The work of Muttontown's top cop will be a lot different from that of the NYPD. In a July letter to residents, Beckerman assured residents that Pulaski will be accessible and provided both his office and cellphone numbers.

"We here, like any community, always want to make sure crime doesn't enter our boundaries," said Beckerman, who said "community service" is a strong component of the department's duties. "There is not a shortage of things that a chief is responsible for here."

With Anthony M. DeStefano

Muttontown Police Chief Phil T. Pulaski<.h3>

Salary: $200,000 annually

Resume: Retired in 2014 as NYPD chief of detectives; previously deputy commissioner of operations. Also worked as commanding officer of the Intelligence Division, Counter-Terrorism Bureau, Detective Boroughs in both Manhattan and the Bronx, and Forensic Investigations Division.

Education: Law degree from St. John's University; master's in civil engineering and bachelor's in chemical engineering from Manhattan College.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.