After 31 years with the East Hampton Town Police Department, 26 of them leading the DARE program in schools, Officer Kim Notel's retirement on Tuesday was the start of a new era, not just for her but for everyone who knew "Officer Kim" in the classrooms and on the roads.
"December 16th will mark the first day in 68 years without a Notel part of the East Hampton Town Police Department," Chief Michael Sarlo marveled in a recent email. Legend has it that Fred Notel, a longtime sergeant on the town force, once told his daughter -- then a 25-year-old working in management at Toys R Us -- "I signed you up. You're taking the test."
Ms. Notel laughed at the unplanned detour from her State University at Oneonta B.A. in business economics during a recent interview, but admitted, "I don't think I really had it figured out, so it was an opportunity." The fact that she had been brought up hearing "You should listen to your father" had some clout too.
At any rate, six months later she graduated from the police academy and hit the roads, which in fact were her biggest challenge starting out. She had been living UpIsland since graduating college and now had to relearn the locations of a lot of East Hampton highways and byways. "I grew up in Springs! Montauk was a big place for us to go," she said.
On the other hand, she was not worried about being one of just four women on a 40-member force. "I think for me it was better than most women, because of my dad, of course," Ms. Notel said. Her mother, not so much. "My mom is 81 and every day she still says when I'm on patrol, 'You're going by yourself? You gotta be careful.' "
One curveball was the old squad building, where East Hampton Town Justice Court is now, with just one locker room. "Knowing that, back in the day I always dressed at home. The only thing in my locker was a gun and a holster."
All roads, no matter how new to her, led to schools for Ms. Notel. "Sometimes I feel like I'm more of a teacher than a police officer," she said, citing the eight months a year she would spend leading DARE, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.
In the year 2000, after the Columbine school shootings, New York State passed a law mandating that police and schools work together to promote school safety. That was a huge undertaking for her, she said.
Most notably, she has made changes to DARE with kids over the years, growing the program from "just say no" to cybersecurity and everything in between, including bullying, strangers, and drugs. At bottom, she said, there is just great value for a child to know a friendly police officer.
"In today's quest for 'community policing,' " wrote Chief Sarlo, "and the goal of ensuring uniformed police officers make connections with the community, we have been fortunate Kim has been doing just that for over 25 years. It's important kids learn to see a uniformed officer as a human being, a compassionate authority figure and role model who they can trust, and Kim has always been just that."
Ms. Notel reflected on the bulk of her work with DARE. "I will say that out here we have a lot of problems with bullying." As a certified school resource officer in the Montauk, Springs, Amagansett, and Wainscott schools, she covered a lot of ground. "I can be in Montauk and some kid in Springs is being cyberbullied, so I head over there," she said of a typical day.
After 26 years, Ms. Notel said, she will still "go all out on culmination graduations" with her students in the DARE program. "I've been doing about three, four, five, a year, and I still get nervous and excited for the kids." Chief Sarlo mentioned as well that her connection to administrators, parents, and community is highlighted by these ceremonies.
A number of teachers with whom Ms. Notel now works were in her DARE classes once upon a time, as were the parents of some of her current students. The officer, who admits to never throwing things away, was delighted recently when she happened upon a DARE essay by Kelsey Zinnel, now a fifth-grade teacher at Montauk School. Naturally, she brought it to school for Ms. Zinnel's class to see, and laughed heartily when her former student said, "Wait, let me read it first."
Ms. Notel said that her "honest reason" for leaving the force comes down only to an expiring contract and a new insurance policy that would now require her, as a single person, to pay toward it.
At 57, Ms. Notel is the oldest serving officer in the police department, she said, which is the source of great amusement for her colleagues, who fondly call her a workaholic and laugh that only three members of the force will have even close to 20 years on her when she leaves.
Not unrelated, the town board passed a resolution Tuesday for a payout of about $128,000 of accrued vacation and holiday time for Ms. Notel. Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, noting her many valuable contributions to juvenile cases and investigations, called her a truly trusted member of the police department.
On her last day, the Montauk School held a fake fire drill, which led everyone to the baseball field, where a small podium and microphone were set up on the pitcher's mound. A few words were said and even more were cheered. "She kinda knows this is happening," Superintendent Jack Perna wrote in an email to staff earlier that day -- which, all things considered, is no surprise.