
The highest-ranking female officer in the Port Authority Police Department has been suspended after being arrested on DWI charges in Chatham Township, officials said.
Susan Durett, 58, of Summit was charged with DWI on March 19, township Lt. William Behre said in a statement released Thursday.
Durett was suspended with pay, and has been assigned to administrative work with no gun or badge, according to John Kelly, a spokesman for the Port Authority.
Kelly said he did not know the length of the suspension.
Durett did not return messages left at her office and home.
A 30-year veteran of the Port Authority police, Durett has been the department's highest-ranking woman since 2004. She serves as an inspector, directly under assistant chief.
The arrest took place around 10 p.m. on March 19, when a motorist called police to report a possible intoxicated driver on Shunpike Road, Behre said. Police responded and located a car traveling very slowly, crossing several times over the center line of the road.
Police stopped Durett on Shunpike Road by Driftway Street, and determined she had been drinking alcoholic beverages, according to their release. After conducting field sobriety tests, officers placed Durett under arrest and brought her to police headquarters, where she was processed, charged and released pending an April 7 hearing in municipal court.
They did not release details of her blood-alcohol level. The legal limit in New Jersey is 0.08 percent.
A New Jersey native, Durett worked as an officer for the Union County Prosecutor's Office before joining the Port Authority police in 1980. In 2004, she was promoted from lieutenant to captain, commanding officer at the World Trade Center and Holland Tunnel. There had been only two previous female captains in the department, one of whom was killed in the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.