Riverhead Police Department to get its first female sergeant

History will be made tonight at Riverhead Town Hall.

Police Officer Jill Kubetz, who has been a member of the Riverhead police force since 2001, will be promoted to sergeant by resolution of the Riverhead Town Board. She will become the highest ranking female officer in the department’s history.

“It’s really quite an accomplishment,” Kubetz said today. “I’m very proud.”

During her past 14 years as an officer, Kubetz has worked in the police’s patrol and Community Oriented Policing Enforcement (COPE) units. She has also worked with Council for Unity at Riverhead High School, as well as in neighborhood watch and crime prevention.

“And now, moving on to sergeant is very exciting,” she said.

Riverhead hired its first female police officers — Karen Scott, Linda Erick and Anita Wooten in 1989.  Since then, the department has added several more female cops to its force of about 80 officers. Evelyn Hobson — the department’s first black female officer — who was hired in 1993, became its first female detective.

“The number of female cops in Riverhead has actually been dwindling lately” due to retirements and a resignation, Police Chief David Hegermiller said this morning. There are currently four other female police officers besides Kubetz in the Riverhead PD, Hegermiller said.

“It’s truly an honor,” Kubetz said in an interview today. “I’m looking forward to serving the town in this capacity.”

Also tonight, the town board is expected to act on a few other police promotions.

Sergeant Sean Egan will be promoted to lieutenant, filling a vacancy created by the retirement of Lt. Robert Peeker last month.

“Egan deserves this,” said Riverhead Councilman John Dunleavy, a retired Riverhead cop himself.  “Anything he does, he does it 115 percent.”

Sergeant Edward Frost will replace Egan as the head of Riverhead’s detective division, a post Egan has held since the retirement of Detective Sergeant Joseph Loggia last year.

Police Officer Jon Devereaux is also being elevated to sergeant tonight. He has been a Riverhead police officer since 2004.

“All of them are great people,” said Hegermiller. “They’re all very hard workers.”

Correction: Due to an editing error, a previously published version of this story left out the names of two of the three female officers hired by the Riverhead Police Department in 1989.