Southampton police chief to retire

It was, perhaps, symbolic that officials in Southampton Town Hall could not find a picture of their police chief, James Overton, Monday, the day he announced his April 16 retirement by issuing a news release.

The police chief in the glitzy, high-profile town for more than two decades, Overton, 66, has managed to stay out of the spotlight for almost his entire career, while leading the department with a no-nonsense style.

"He's a hard-nosed, hardworking chief," said Conrad Teller, who himself had been chief in Southampton Town for 20 years before retiring, and is now the Mayor of Westhampton Beach. "He's managed to avoid controversy."

During his career, he survived a bitter battle with the Patrolman's Benevolent Association of Southampton in 2004 in which the union took a nonbinding vote of no confidence in him and criticism this year from the Suffolk District Attorney for not keeping a detective on the East End drug task force. There were even efforts in 2006 by members of an earlier town board to strip him of much of his power by creating a police commissioner.

Overton's biggest victory may have come when he won a court battle in the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court in 2000, when the town tried to force him to retire. They lost.

"It has been a great run of 43 years and a great town to work for," Overton said in the release.

Southampton Town Police Capt. Anthony Tenaglia, speaking for the department, added "Chief James P. Overton will be missed. He has been an inspirational, dynamic, honest and sincere leader - and a true friend to many of us."

Overton joined the department in 1968, worked his way through the ranks and became chief in January 1990.

Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst said in a prepared statement, "He privately informed the town board several weeks ago that he planned to step down in the near future. . . . I wish him and his family the very best in the next chapter of their lives."

Throne-Holst said civil service law requires that the vacancy, once it occurs, must be filled by someone in the police department.

Town Councilwoman Nancy Graboski said the subject of a replacement may come up next week. She praised Overton, saying, "The chief is old school and really runs a tight ship."