Brianne Quigley, now 31, knew from a young age what she wanted to be when she grew up, and that vision never wavered. “I wanted to be a police officer like my Dad,” said the newly minted New Paltz Police Department sergeant — the very first female sergeant in the department’s history. “He was my hero then, and he still is now,” she told the New Paltz Times less than an hour before she’d begin her night shift, supervising the officers on that line from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.: arguably the busiest time for law enforcement, particularly in a busy college town. She said that she pulled out her yearbooks from preschool and grade school recently, and in every one, where it asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” she had written “Police officer.” “I even drew a female police stick figure in some of the yearbooks,” said Quigley, who grew up in Kingston and landed her first job out of the academy as a part-time officer in Athens at age 20.
When a part-time position opened up in New Paltz, she jumped at the opportunity and was thankful to get the job. “New Paltz is where most of the young officers in this area want to work,” she said. “It has a busy nightlife and certainly gives you a lot of on-the-job training.”
After working as a part-time officer and then being appointed to a full-time position for the past nine years, Quigley took the Civil Service exam required even to apply for the ranking of sergeant and was chosen by outgoing police chief Joe Snyder. She explained that with the chief leaving, there are a bunch of people being promoted, which is why the sergeant post opened up. “I just remember walking into the Plaza Diner and my four-year-old daughter said, ‘Did you get the job, Mommy?’ and when I said ‘Yes,’ she started shouting with joy: ‘We can have family dinnertime now!’”
Quigley gets teary when she tells this story. “That made it all worth it,” she said, “being able to have dinner with my family.” (She also has a two-year-old daughter and is married to a detective in the department.) “That’s something I’ve always wanted to do and believed is important: to have that family time and share your day with each other. When I was working the day shift, we couldn’t do that. Now we can. So, I’ll take the lack of sleep,” she said with a laugh.
For Quigley, becoming the first female sergeant for the NPPD is a source of pride. “I worked hard for this,” she said. “Nothing was given to me. And I just love that my daughter says that she wants to be a police officer ‘like my Mommy.’”
Growing up, Quigley was told by her father that she could do anything she set her mind to, and she never saw gender as being a barrier to achieving her career goals. “Let’s be honest: No parent wants their child to become a police officer because of the inherent danger. But once I decided to go into the academy, he supported me 100 percent. And it’s been so important to be able to talk to him — especially when I was a new officer and encountering things for the first time. I was able to call someone who understood what I was going through.”
She also said that she was drawn to becoming an officer because it’s “not a typical 9-to-5 job. Every day is a different day, and you never know what to expect or what’s going to happen, and I like that. I like the adrenaline, the challenge, learning how to adapt to situations. I also loved the stories my father would come home and tell us at the dinner table. And yes, it may be clichéd, but I really do like to help people. I like to try and change people’s perspective on police officers — to humanize the badge,” she mused. “I want people to understand that we’re here to help, and we’re not all evil and that we’re people too.”
Quigley said that many of the men she now supervises during the night shift did their field training under her when they were new officers. “I think that’s made the transition much easier,” she said. “We’ve worked together and get along well.”
Although she has moved from being a beat officer to a supervisory capacity, Quigley is quick to say that she’s not one for sitting behind a desk and giving orders. “I try and get my paperwork done as soon as I get in, and then any chance I can, get out on patrol,” she said, explaining that she’s a “uniform” sergeant and therefore can still be on the ground. “I want to get out and go on calls and see what everyone is doing and interact with my officers and the public.”
Asked if being a woman in a field predominantly staffed by men can be challenging, she paused before she responded. “Yes. There are times when it can be challenging, when I’m out on a call and someone sexualizes me or doesn’t want to take me seriously. That’s very frustrating. But ultimately, those reactions just want me to be better at my job.”
When asked for his reaction about having the first sworn-in female sergeant on the force at the NPPD, Chief Snyder said, “I understand that this is a historic time for the New Paltz police. I am happy to be part of this. However, I try not to get caught up in the fact that she is our first female sergeant. I look at it as we promoted a well-deserving officer that will continue leading our agency in a positive direction to work with and serve our community.”
In terms of why they chose Quigley for the post, he said, “we are a fortunate agency being that we have several great candidates for this position.” He also noted that it’s always a “touchy decision when making the final selection to promote any of our members,” and in this case, “Sergeant Quigley has demonstrated throughout her career her dedication, integrity, leadership ability, compassion and overall job knowledge to be the perfect person for the job. I am confident that she is the right person for this position and I am sure she will have additional promotions in the future.”
Quigley is certainly in the minority as one of only two women on the NPPD roster right now (the other female officer is part-time). In terms of the culture of NPPD, Quigley said that what she enjoys about it is “how progressive this department is. That’s a real credit to the chief [Snyder] and to Rob [Lucchesi, the lieutenant], because they’ve put a real emphasis on diversity. When I was working the day shift, it was myself and three black officers. That’s pretty diverse. And it’s what our community wants to see: representation.” Quigley said that what she believes adds to the culture of the NPPD is “how much training we do.” Whether it’s in diversity training, community policing or tactical training, they want to stay current and timely and progressive.
In response to the types of calls they get at night as opposed to the day, Quigley said, “It’s a lot more active at night because we have bars that stay open until 4 a.m. So many of the calls deal with people being inebriated, whether it’s fights or DWIs.” When you have a busy nightlife, that draws people from the college and from neighboring towns and cities; there are always going to be some action, as well as some infractions.
“We get some crazy calls,” she said, filtering through a number of them to try to find some that might give the flavor of what the officers can encounter, without being too inappropriate. “For some reason, when people are intoxicated, they like to run around naked. There was one guy that just kept running up and down Plattekill Avenue naked, with turmeric all over his body; and another guy that got so angry at my partner and I when we arrived at a call that he pulled out his catheter and started hitting my partner with it!”
Asked what her hardest call was to respond to, she said, “The murder of a two-year-old child. That was awful,” she said, referring to a case that happened almost nine years ago at a home on Route 32 North.
In the glass memorabilia case behind the conference table in the NPPD station is a picture of five younger officers from the 1980s doing some firearms training. One of those officers was Karen Koch, the first female New Paltz police officer, who in some unknowing way helped clear the trail for Quigley decades later. “I started out as a dispatcher for the police department in 1979,” recalled Koch. “And then, in 1984, chief Charlie Bogdanovich said, ‘I think you should go to the police academy,’ so I did.”
Asked what it was like to be the first female NPPD officer, Koch said, “Inside the department, it wasn’t a big deal, because I knew everyone and they knew me. But when I was out on patrol, there would be some people in shock, or some who would actually be disgusted. Most people were very kind and supportive and would say things like, ‘It’s about time!’” Asked if she feels some pride in having been the department’s first female officer, she said, “I do. I was very honored when the chief asked me. I always loved being a dispatcher and loved being a police officer, and I felt very proud when my sons came to my graduation [from the police academy]. That was special.”
In fact, her son is Pat Koch — also a sergeant like Quigley. Karen watched the swearing-in of Quigley on the local access Channel 23, and shortly after was able to “congratulate her in person. I wish her all the best, and I think she’s a kind person and an excellent officer.”
Chief Snyder added that he looks “forward to seeing a news article that Brianne Quigley is the first chief of police for the New Paltz Police Department.”
The NPPD’s thin blue line just grew one large circle at the top.
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