Shelter Island Profile: Jalill Carter, Shelter Island’s newest police officer

Jalill Carter, Shelter Island’s newest police officer, had his first experience of a ferry when he was 16. 

Traveling from upstate New York, he was with his mother and four siblings on their way to live with relatives on the Island. It was about 9 o’clock at night by the time they boarded the ferry. “I had never been on a ferry before. I took my phone, and I started recording,” he said. “I thought: This is crazy.”

Seven years later, Jalill Carter is Officer Carter, Shelter Island’s newest policeman, and getting his marine training on the same waters he crossed on that memorable night. “I’d never operated a boat before,” he said. “That was my first time doing it, and it was great. It’s hard to drive at first. They get going pretty quick, but obviously I had somebody standing by me. It was great.”

By Jalill’s account, since he moved from Utica, N.Y. to Shelter Island, there has been someone standing by him every step of the way.

Before that first ferry ride in 2018, his family’s circumstances in Utica were hard, and the death of his grandfather was a blow, especially to Carter’s mother, Chekechea Green, who depended on her father to look after Jalill and his four siblings: two younger brothers, Leron and Jamel Saunders, and two younger sisters, Ariana and Danae. 

“The area I lived in, I didn’t see room for growth for me or my family,” Jalill said. “Shelter Island presented different kinds of role models.” Two important role models were his aunt Tramesa Overstreet and her husband Scott, who opened their home to Jalill’s family. The other was his mother. “I model my work ethic after my mother,” he said. “You know, she was a single mom doing God’s work.” 

His mother’s decision to move the family to Shelter Island, which was initially suggested by his grandmother Ruth Green, changed his family’s life for the better. “My aunt Tramesa and uncle Scott, they’ve become parents to me,” Jalill said. “Pretty much that’s when life started for me.” Another relative, Jalill’s great-uncle Jason Green was a captain on the South Ferry and his cousin Jason Green graduated in the same high school class as Jalill.

He went from a school with thousands of students to one with just 25 in the class. “It was different because I had teachers that paid a lot more attention to us, teachers who cared and who knew you on a personal level,” he said. “It’s an amazing experience here, really, almost like family.”

Jalill graduated from the Shelter Island High School in 2021, and went to SUNY Albany to pursue a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. He worked during his high school years at landscaping, and two summers at the Gardiner’s Bay Country Club, but a summer job during college doing traffic control started him thinking about policing. It was during this time that a Shelter Island police officer suggested he consider taking the tests to become a policeman.

In his junior year, he decided to take the battery of tests (written, physical, medical, psychological) and background checks that would qualify him for police work, followed by successful completion of the Police Academy training, and the exhilaration of graduation. He had already made the decision to leave college a year early for the opportunity to serve the Town of Shelter Island as a police officer. He plans to complete his BA degree online.

Jalill has done a lot of night shifts in his first months, and says that the feeling on Shelter Island that there’s always someone there to support him, is even stronger. “Overnight, I’m looking out for people who are driving when they’re not supposed to be, noise complaints, medical calls,” he said. “When someone has to get across the ferry, I can call the ferry, or a local contractor needs to come do something, I can call and they have no problem coming to deal with it. If there’s a tree in the road, the Highway Department will come and take care of it.”

At 22, and a few months into his policing career, Jalill said he continues to think about ways to grow and be more useful to his family and his community. “At some point, I would like to learn a trade, possibly automotive, something productive,” he said.

Jalill said he’s been fortunate to have help finding a place to live on the Island, which allowed him to move out of his aunt and uncle’s home, not a small matter for someone working nights. He wonders if a challenge to the good life on Shelter Island is indicated by the shrinking size of the school classes. “A lot of people,” he said, “are moving because they just can’t afford to live here.”

His desire to lift his family and make them proud of him is strong. “Some people think that I’m very intimidating. But I’m not that kind of person,” Jalill said. “What I really want is for everyone I love to be happy, and still have that relationship with my family, my siblings, and my cousins, who are my brothers and sisters.”

Lightning Round — Jalill Carter

What do you always have with you? A stretchy plastic bracelet with “Mentality” printed on it. In any situation where I’m feeling overwhelmed, I look at the bracelet.

Favorite place on Shelter Island? Sunset Beach — it’s lively and there’s music playing. 

What exasperates you? People who put other people down because they are unhappy.

When was the last time you were afraid?

When I got the call that I was going to be a Shelter Island Police Officer and was going to the Police Academy. I didn’t know what to expect.

Favorite sports/teams? Basketball, the Knicks and the Bucks.

What is the best day of the year on Shelter Island? I love Christmas on Shelter Island.

Favorite movie? ‘Nacho Libre’ with Jack Black.

Favorite food? Buffalo chicken wings.

Favorite person? Bruce Lee, the great martial artist.