Former Cove Neck Police Chief Dies At 90

OYSTER BAY, NY — A former Cove Neck police chief known for modernizing and expanding the tiny Long Island department has died. He was 90.

Harry J. Porteus of Oyster Bay died Wednesday, the Francis P. DeVine funeral home announced. He was the beloved husband of Margaret, loving father of Gerard (Holly), Margaret (Bradley) Kahler, Kevin (Vicky), Stephen, and the late Harry Jr. Porteus was also the cherished grandfather of Fritz, Julie, Sandra and Jamie, and great-grandfather to five.

The New York Times in 1971 wrote that Porteus, then 41, represented law and order to the 500 Cove Neck residents, along with his six officers, two police cars and police horse. The small team would sometimes get a helping hand from nearby Nassau County police officers on the rare occasions that things got out of hand in sleepy Cove Neck, a hamlet made up of mostly of wealthy estate owners that would see an uptick in activity during the warmer summer months due to its beaches.

"We have our narcotics problems, our drunken drivers, burglaries and so forth, just as the larger cities," Porteus said at the time. "But they're mostly transients. We find narcotics among kids on the beaches or in the woods, and we arrest them."

Porteus, a Bayville native, became a Bayville village policeman at 21, as soon as he was eligible, according to the Times report. In his early 30s, he left his job as a patrolman for the county to become chief for the Cove Neck department, eventually expanding and upgrading the department. Under Porteus, Cove Neck's two patrol cars were linked with a dispatcher, nearby villages and the county through a communications system. He also experimented with incorporating dune buggies and motor scooters into the department before finally landing on a police horse named Elgin, according to the report.

"There's nothing better to get around the beaches with than a horse," Porteus said at the time. "And the general public has a lot of respect for a police horse."

A mass of Christian burial is planned at St. Gertrude's R.C. Church at 9:30 a.m. Monday. He will be interred at Locust Valley Cemetery. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Hospice Care Network.