December 20, 2019

Photos are available on DEP’s Flickr page

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) today promoted four veteran members of its police division and celebrated the graduation of three new canine teams during a ceremony at the Staff Sgt. Robert H. Dietz DEP Police Academy in Kingston, New York.

“I want to congratulate the members of our police division who were promoted to detective today, and the canines and officers who recently completed their vigorous training,” DEP Commissioner Vincent Sapienza said. “New Yorkers are fortunate to have a highly skilled, trained and dedicated police force to protect our water supply system and the lands that surround it.”

The DEP Police Division was established more than 100 years ago. It is charged with protecting the city’s water supply system, which includes nearly two dozen reservoirs and lakes, more than 2,000 square miles of watershed land across nine counties, hundreds of miles of tunnels and aqueducts, dozens of dams, treatment plants, laboratories and other facilities. DEP police patrol the watershed by foot, bicycle, all-terrain vehicle, motorcycle, boat and helicopter. They also maintain specially trained units that include a detective bureau, emergency service unit, canine unit and aviation unit. The DEP Police Division includes more than 200 sworn officers.

The following were promoted to detective:

• Det. Tamara Chapman joined the DEP Police in 2013 and began her career in the patrol division out of the Eastview Precinct in Westchester County. She graduated from LaGuardia Community College with an associate’s degree in liberal arts and sciences, and from the City College of New York with a bachelor’s degree in studio art.
• Det. Elliot Clanton joined the DEP Police in 2009 and began his career in the patrol division out of the Hillview Precinct in Westchester County. He also worked in the Eastview Precinct. Clanton attended St. John’s University and studied communication arts.
• Det. Wendy Mattson joined the DEP Police in 2013 and began her career in the patrol division out of the Eastview Precinct in Westchester County. She also worked in the Gilboa Precinct in Schoharie County and the Beerston Precinct in Delaware County. Mattson graduated from Rutgers University with a bachelor’s degree in animal science.
• Det. Brett Misenar joined the DEP Police in 2002 and began his career in the patrol division out of the Croton Precinct in Westchester County. He also worked in the Eastview Precinct. Misenar is a veteran of the U.S. Navy.

In addition to the detectives who were promoted on Friday, DEP also celebrated three officers and their canine partners who recently completed the training requirements to become canine units. Over the course of five months, the officer-canine teams attended courses on police patrol, tracking, article search and scent detection, and police explosives detection.

The teams that completed the training include:

• Sgt. Frank Emmett and K-9 Cole —After serving in the U.S. Navy for 15 years, Emmett chose to name his canine partner in honor of the USS Cole, a guided missile destroyer that was attacked in Yemen in 2000. Seventeen U.S. Navy sailors were killed in the attack and 39 others were injured.
• Det. Olivia Bachor and K-9 Kent—Bachor named her canine partner after U.S. Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Shannon M. Kent, who was killed in action in Syria in 2019. Kent grew up in the Dutchess County town of Pine Plains.
• Officer James Lukacs and K-9 Sarge—Lukacs named his canine partner in honor of Sgt. Joseph Andriani and Sgt. Edmund Klan, both of whom passed away while they were actively employed as sergeants with the DEP Police.

DEP manages New York City’s water supply, providing more than 1 billion gallons of high-quality water each day to more than 9.6 million New Yorkers. This includes more than 70 upstate communities and institutions in Ulster, Orange, Putnam and Westchester counties who consume an average of 110 million total gallons of drinking water daily from New York City’s water supply system. This water comes from the Catskill, Delaware, and Croton watersheds that extend more than 125 miles from the City, and the system comprises 19 reservoirs, three controlled lakes, and numerous tunnels and aqueducts. DEP has nearly 6,000 employees, including almost 1,000 scientists, engineers, surveyors, watershed maintainers and other professionals in the watershed. In addition to its $70 million payroll and $168.9 million in annual taxes paid in upstate counties, DEP has invested more than $1.7 billion in watershed protection programs—including partnership organizations such as the Catskill Watershed Corporation and the Watershed Agricultural Council—that support sustainable farming practices, environmentally sensitive economic development, and local economic opportunity. In addition, DEP has a robust capital program with $20.1 billion in investments planned over the next decade that will create up to 3,000 construction-related jobs per year. For more information, visit nyc.gov/dep, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.