Bellport middle school girls tour Suffolk police headquarters, meet women leaders

At John L. Barry Police Headquarters in Yaphank, a group of Bellport Middle School girls met Chief of Operations Milagros Soto and Officer Yasmin Gallant for an inside look at Suffolk County policing, a visit meant to show students that law enforcement careers are within reach.

The trip came as Bellport Middle School has been using Women’s History Month to spotlight women in law enforcement. In early March, the school held its third annual assembly on the topic, bringing in Deputy Police Commissioner Belinda Alvarez-Groneman, Soto, Assistant Commissioner Elizabeth M. Daitz, Detective Sergeant Apryl Hargrove and Gallant. Together, the events put female leadership in front of students at a time when departments across Long Island are trying to show who is in the pipeline and who is already leading it.

That pipeline matters in Suffolk County, where police headquarters sits at 30 Yaphank Avenue in a county that covers about 900 square miles on Long Island. The Suffolk County Police Department’s Community Relations Bureau says it was established on May 1, 2005 to build communication with diverse communities, and the department’s School Resource Officer program includes presentations to middle schools about police work, safety topics and opportunities for employment within the department.

Soto gave that message particular weight. She was promoted to chief of operations on February 27, 2025, becoming the highest-ranking woman in Suffolk County Police Department history. Before that, she made history in 2021 as the first Hispanic woman to reach deputy chief. She joined the department in 1988, when she was 25, and early in her career she was one of the few Spanish-speaking officers working the midnight shift.

Her rise has made her a visible example for students in Bellport and across Suffolk County. A 2019 profile noted that the department had 245 sworn members with Hispanic heritage, including 140 bilingual officers, a reminder of how representation can shape trust, recruitment and community outreach. Soto later helped with outreach in Brentwood during the 2016 MS-13 violence period, work that reflected how policing in Suffolk often stretches beyond enforcement into public safety, language access and neighborhood credibility.

For Bellport’s students, the visit to Yaphank linked those bigger issues to a concrete image: women who already hold command posts, and a department that is still looking to fill its ranks with the next generation.