The resignation of the Suffolk County police commissioner leaves the county to start moving ahead with the next steps to fill the vacancy.

Geraldine Hart announced she is stepping down next month after three years on the job to take a role at Hofstra University for what she says is a better "work life balance."

"Having two teenagers, one getting ready for college, I feel like I'll never get that time back again," says Hart. "It's important to me to have that balance, work family balance."

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone says the department will launch what it's calling a nationwide search for the next commissioner. Hart and her predecessor Tim Sini were both appointed by Bellone and local to Long Island.

"We're going to be conducting a real search," says Bellone. "It will be far and wide. It's not to say that it won't be on the local level, I'm not going to predetermine."

Bellone tells News 12 that "we are in a different world today than we were just a few years ago in terms of policing and we've just gotten through a police reform plan that we're going to be implementing."

Chief of Department Stuart Cameron will serve as acting commissioner. Bellone says it's a role that Cameron has served in before.