Gilgo Beach probe will continue unabated after top cop Rodney Harrison's departure, Suffolk County executive says

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and his departing police commissioner, Rodney K. Harrison, vowed Friday that the re-energized Gilgo Beach homicides investigation will continue unabated in Harrison’s absence.

A day after Harrison, who had a 30-year career at the NYPD before coming to the Suffolk County Police Department in late 2021, announced his resignation, Bellone said he will appoint an acting commissioner by mid-December when Harrison leaves.

Harrison, in a telephone interview Friday, said his last official day will be sometime in mid-December and the department's top officials — Deputy Police Commissioner Risco Mention-Lewis and Chief of Department Robert Waring — will make the day-to-day decisions during the transition. Harrison, 54, was paid $235,502 in 2022, according to Newsday's payroll database.

Bellone, speaking with reporters at an unrelated news conference in Riverhead on Friday, said he was not surprised by Harrison’s departure and credited Harrison's leadership with authorities making an arrest this summer in the long-unsolved serial killer case. Suffolk prosecutors have charged Massapequa Park architect Rex A. Heuermann in the killings of three women whose bodies were found near Gilgo Beach in 2010. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty.

Gilgo Beach case a priority

"Making the arrest in the Gilgo Beach serial murder case was a top priority for both of us when he came here. And that mission [was] accomplished; he got that done," Bellone said of Harrison.

Both Bellone and Harrison, who made the Gilgo Beach investigation a priority by setting up a task force to work the case, said the top cop's departure won't have an impact on the ongoing work of the Gilgo Beach task force.

“We will make sure the task force stays strong … It is going to stay in place,” Harrison said.

Bellone said there is more investigative work to do. 

"You know, justice has not been done for all of the families who have been impacted by these horrific crimes," Bellone said. "So that will continue, but it will continue with the new police commissioner, and it will continue with the new administration as well."

The search for a new commissioner

Tuesday's election for county executive between Republican Ed Romaine and Democrat David Calone will decide who appoints the next police commissioner. A majority of the Suffolk County Legislature must vote in favor of the nominated candidate to confirm the appointment. All 18 seats on the legislature are up for reelection Tuesday.

The campaigns for both Calone, a former federal prosecutor, and Romaine, the Brookhaven Town supervisor, declined to make the candidates available for interviews.

But Romaine bandied about some possible names in a Newsday interview last month. 

"I've heard all types of suggestions from the guy from Old Westbury, the Old Westbury chief [Stu Cameron] that Bellone promised the job," said Romaine. "I've heard about him. I've heard whoever their chief of patrol is in the current department [Gerard Hardy]. And I've heard a host of other names out there. And you know what, I tell people that I'm not doing anything until I get elected.”

When asked for comment on his potential interest in the Suffolk police commissioner job, Cameron, a 37-year veteran of the Suffolk police who resigned as acting commissioner in January 2022 to take the police chief job in Old Westbury, said: "I think Ed Romaine is going to be an outstanding county executive, so whoever gets to serve as PC for him would be fortunate." 

The ability to get things done

Legislative Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey (R-Lindenhurst) said the governing body will vet potential candidates but often  defers to the county executive’s pick. He said he’d like to see a candidate with strong administrative experience as well as experience as a law enforcement officer.

“I think without that, you don't have the respect,” he said. “I think you need to have somebody that's experienced that the other police officers, no matter what their rank, will respect and respect their judgment. And to be able to get things done.”

Harrison told Newsday Thursday night that the timing of his departure announcement was to keep any pressure off the incoming county executive. 

"There’s going to be a change in administration, there’s going to be a new county executive coming in, so I thought the time would be right due to the fact that I don’t want to have any elected official that’s coming in to feel compelled to keep me around," Harrison said.

Bellone said he did not believe Harrison’s departure “politicized” the post.

"He's making an announcement before there's an election. The voters will decide who's in office. I don't think that … so this doesn't have anything to do with that. This is the right timing for him," Bellone said. "And I think it actually makes it clear, it's not political.”

Harrison's tenure

Harrison, who during his tenure implemented a body camera program as part of state-mandated police reform and the first arrest in the Gilgo Beach killings while overseeing the police investigation, said the Gilgo arrest is one of the most personally rewarding moments in his law enforcement career.

"Sometimes my predecessors got a bad rap for not getting the job done. I thought that was very unfair because a lot of good work was done before I got there. We were just able to take it over the finish line,” Harrison said.

 Miller Place-based defense attorney John Ray, who had in the past criticized the police department for its work on the Gilgo Beach killings, in a statement praised Harrison. 

“Suffolk County has been truly graced with a man worthy to have been a champion of the people," said Ray. "He has achieved sorely needed excellence, because he did not accept the past, he did not rest contented with the status quo."