Rye Brook siblings have a calling to protect and serve their Village
July 20, 2023 at 12:27 a.m.
Michael Meagher is a gym guy. Working out is a fundamental part of his daily routine.
However, in all he does to keep his body and mind in shape, he hates running—despises it, he always has. But for his sister, Amber, he’d set aside most internal reservations about unpleasant activities if it meant he could help, support and protect her.
So for a few months in the winter and spring of 2022, Michael went running with Amber every day. It wasn’t because he had to; it was because he loves her—there for moral support, as he described it.
“He was out there every day running with me,” Amber recalled. “And he was calling me, pushing me, helping me get my times down every day. Like, ‘we got to keep going, we got to keep going.’ He’d text me every day, motivating me.”
“Sometimes it would be freezing outside. And sometimes, I remember one day in May it was 100 degrees outside. And I was running, and he’s standing out there in the heat,” she continued with a boisterous laugh. “I felt so bad because I’m dying, and I know he’s dying because he’s just standing in the sun with a stopwatch timing me. I don’t think I would have made it if it wasn’t for him motivating me.”
Amber was training for her agility test, a necessary component in the checklist on the way to becoming a police officer. And Michael was there to help his older sister because he knew it would bring her one step closer to achieving her lifelong goal, the same way he did for himself six years prior.
Amber is the newest Rye Brook Police Department recruit, hired in December 2022 at a salary of $61,000. After several months of training at the Westchester County Police Academy, she graduated on May 26 and started working in the Village full-time.
When she joined the force, she was enlisted in the Village’s first responders’ team that many feel is close knit like a family—but in her case, it’s a sentiment more literal. Michael has been a Rye Brook firefighter for the last six years, going to work at the same Village Hall complex that Amber is now at as well.
“It’s nice because we’re both in careers where many times we’re going to be working holidays,” Michael said. “But now if I’m on during Christmas or Thanksgiving, I’ll still get to be with my sister.”
Growing up in Rye Brook, in the Port Chester School District sector, the Meaghers were close as children. Michael, currently 30 years old, is the baby of the duo, who says he always looked up to his big sister.
And Amber, 32, said she’s always felt the same.
He had wanted to be a firefighter since childhood—idolizing role models in his life who worked both volunteer and paid gigs with the Port Chester Fire Department. And she was similarly passionate about law enforcement. “I used to read those ‘Boxcar Children’ books and two-minute mysteries, so I was always intrigued on that end of it,” she explained.
Though their paths toward those careers took different shapes, they continued to support each other side by side through every twist and turn of the road—serving as each other’s cheerleaders.
“Being a problem solver, she’s always been someone to look up to,” Michael said of Amber. “She’s always quick on her toes and good at thinking outside the box on solving issues,” he continued. “Growing up, with any of my problems, she’d protect you as an older sister. It’s perfect for being a police officer, it’s what they do.”
“My brother is amazing, and I definitely look up to him,” Amber quickly responded, essentially cutting him off. “He’s incredible, he goes out of his way to help people. Sometimes, before I got hired, I’d come to the fire station just to have dinner or something. And I remember once there was this guy on the side of road, and my brother was out there helping him change his tire. A lot of people wouldn’t do that, but he’s the type of person that would.”
Police Officer Amber and Firefighter Michael Meagher pose for a photo by a Rye Brook fire truck after completing their first call together at a Village residence. They wanted to commemorate the moment with a photo so they could immediately send it to their mother.Courtesy of Michael Meagher
Before Michael was hired as a Rye Brook firefighter, the siblings went together to take the civil service exam—a successful run for the brother, who at the time was working in construction and volunteering with the Port Chester Fire Department’s Rescue Company. Within two years, he got a request to interview from the Village of Rye Brook, and he eagerly jumped at the opportunity.
“When this came up, I just kind of dropped everything and went for it,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it was happening. I actually didn’t tell a lot of people until I knew everything was secure. It was amazing, that moment when the things you worked so hard for finally come to fruition. The hard work paid off.”
“Rye Brook is an amazing community,” he later added. “It’s been a great a great place to grow up, and I’ve just throughout the last six years grown to love it more and more.”
Initially, Amber wasn’t pursued by area police departments, and she ended up putting her dream on the back burner for a few years, happily working as a dental assistant in Rye Brook in the meantime. In 2021, she was inspired to try again. And with her now living in Port Chester, and Michael still close by in Stamford, Conn., he was ambitious to help—even if it meant running.
After scoring well on the 2021 test, Amber became a candidate of high interest. She fielded several job interviews with police departments across the county, but the letter of interest from Rye Brook was the service opportunity she had been waiting for.
“I interviewed with so many different people, but it never felt like the right fit. And when I got the letter from Rye Brook, I remember I personally, with my brother, walked into (Village Administrator Christopher Bradbury’s office) and handed him the application like: ‘I want this job,’” she said. “I knew some of the police officers here, I obviously knew some of the firefighters, and I grew up here. This was definitely the right fit for me.”
Both Meaghers described the initial feeling of having an opportunity to serve Rye Brook as surreal. Not only did they land placement in the careers they’d been chatting with each other about wanting since they were children, but it had come to fruition in their hometown.
While they both noted that they’d be dedicated to their communities no matter where they worked, it feels different to have a personal connection.
As a dental assistant, Amber had gotten to know countless families in Port Chester and Rye Brook—she watched children grow up, some starting families of their own.
“It’s such a good feeling to be able to go the extra mile for this community especially,” she said. “The other day, for example, I went on a call to the Rye Ridge Shopping Center and five or six people came up to me and said: ‘oh, my God, we’re so proud of you.’ I just feel a special connection to these people, and I want to go that extra mile to take care of people I know.”
For Michael, the connectedness sets in when he’s driving around town and sees the places he spent boundless time at in his youth.
“Especially when we go on calls to Port Chester High School and Middle School. Going on calls there and seeing your old teachers and principals, and they get to see how you grew up, it’s so nice,” he said. “They get to see how far you’ve come, and it just feels really good.”
The Rye Brook police and fire departments are cut from the same cloth—they often work in tandem on the same calls.
A few weeks into Amber’s gig, she had that experience for the first time with her brother—dispatched to a home where a woman accidentally locked herself out, leaving a young child inside.
“We couldn’t get in, so we called the fire department and my brother showed up and took over,” Amber described.
The responders resolved the issue with no problems; no damage to the home was sustained, and the mother and child were happily reunited. Afterwards, the Meaghers couldn’t help but commemorate the moment, the first of many joint assignments they’ll experience, with a photo together—they had to send it to their mother.
Of course, by the nature of the job, there will be future calls of greater intensity. And in those moments, they know they’ll have the added bond as partners who know each other better than anyone.
As children, the Meaghers always had each other’s backs, Michael said. And now in adulthood, in what may sometimes be situations of the highest stakes, they can continue to do the same.
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