A lifelong resident of Southampton, Suzanne Hurteau earned a criminal justice degree at Long Island University’s C.W. Post campus in Brookville. After graduating from both college and the police academy in 1995, she became a seasonal, then full-time police officer in Southampton in 1997. She was assigned to the Suffolk County district attorney’s East End Drug Task Force, where she performed investigations and undercover work, and rose through the ranks, achieving promotions to detective, sergeant in 2009, and lieutenant in 2018. Taking the helm of the Southampton Village Police Department as acting chief in 2021, she was promoted to captain in 2022, and was then unanimously appointed as Southampton Village’s permanent police chief in July 2023.