Suffolk Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina talks about his journey to become the county's top cop

Kevin Catalina was tossing around a Frisbee with his friends about 40 years ago when he saw a man sprint through a Sayville park — and a Suffolk police officer in hot pursuit.

It was one of those moments in Catalina’s youth that cemented his desire to join the Suffolk County Police Department, the county’s new commissioner said in a recent interview at the agency’s Yaphank headquarters.

"I remember thinking to myself, 'What could be more exciting than running after somebody who doesn't want to be caught?' " said Catalina, who is married and the father of two children. "That was something that stuck with me. I was probably 15 or 16 at the time. I think the excitement of it, I think the idea that no two days would be the same, kind of drew me to the profession."

Catalina talked about his long journey to become Suffolk's top cop, and about priorities and challenges that await him after Suffolk lawmakers unanimously voted to approve the 57-year-old as the department’s 16th police commissioner on Feb. 4.

He said that in addition to keeping the county's historic low crime rate, he will concentrate on making roads safer, lowering drug overdoses, suppressing street gang activity and using state-of-the-art police techniques to fight and prevent crime.

The NYPD years

Catalina spent 27 years with the NYPD, rising to the rank of deputy chief and commanding units tasked with analyzing intelligence and preventing gang-related crime. He then worked for five years as a Suffolk undersheriff, leading Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr.'s intelligence and anti-gang efforts, before joining the SCPD as a deputy to acting Commissioner Robert Waring in January 2024.

Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine nominated Catalina for the $220,000-a-year position earlier this year, after Waring returned to his former role as chief of department.

"He has been part of all aspects of police work, is well-respected by the rank and file officers, deputy commissioners and chiefs, and is the right person for the position," Romaine said in a statement to Newsday.

Toulon credited Catalina with building his office’s intelligence program and improving collaboration with the SCPD and the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office. "He has a brilliant police mind," Toulon said. "He is tough on crime but he is also very community-oriented."

Catalina takes over the department at a time when violent crime dropped 10% between 2023 and 2024, according to SCPD data provided to Newsday, while property crime fell nearly 11%.

"We are at historic lows when it comes to violence," Catalina said. "The 16 homicides we had last year were the lowest number of homicides we’ve had in over 20 years. Our shooting numbers are down."

The decline in crime, he said, gives the department an opportunity to divert resources to tackle other pressing problems, such as traffic safety and the opioid epidemic.

Improving road safety

Catalina was one of the creators of the county’s Street Takeover Task Force, which includes prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies as well as police officers and is focused on stopping illegal racing and car gatherings. The department is also beefing up enforcement of drunken and drugged driving, he said.

The near-fatal injuries suffered by Officer Brendon Gallagher, whose patrol car hit a tree after it was hit by a speeding motorist on Jan. 5, highlight the need for smarter traffic enforcement, Catalina said. Gallagher, a member of the Street Takeover Task Force, was released on Jan. 27 after 22 days in Stony Brook University Hospital.

"Quite frankly, the roads in general are not as safe as they should be," Catalina said.

The SCPD will also add resources to combat the opioid epidemic that has claimed thousands of Long Island lives since the 1990s. Fatal overdoses are declining significantly, Catalina said, but traffickers continue to poison customers by cutting cocaine, heroin and even counterfeit pharmaceutical pills with fentanyl, a cheap, synthetic opioid responsible for the majority of the nation’s drug deaths.

"The drug supply is tainted," Catalina said. "It is exceedingly dangerous. It is something we are going to continue to focus on."

Catalina’s nomination came shortly after the county unveiled its newly expanded Suffolk Crime Analysis Center, a state-of-the-art facility that can accommodate 45 crime analysts, detectives, prosecutors, and other law enforcement officials from Long Island, New York City and beyond.

Catalina has spent much of his career gathering and analyzing intelligence and data, which is one reason the Suffolk Legislature’s Democrats and Republicans voted 17-0 — with Legis. Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga) abstaining — to approve his nomination, according to Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey.

"I like his focus on data-driven policy, looking at statistics and data when deciding how to divert resources," McCaffrey said.

The center uses data from hundreds of cameras to track vehicles reported as stolen or used during the commission of crimes, and that information can be used to identify crime trends and assist agencies in deploying resources. New York State spent nearly $1 million to triple the size of the center, officials said.

Advances in DNA and crime fighting techniques

Advances in DNA science and other technology will also be a boon to the cold case team created by Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney to take a fresh look at stalled homicide investigations, Catalina said.

The arrest of a suspect in the 2003 killing of an 88-year-old North Bay Shore widow underscored why the cold case team’s work is so important, Catalina said. The arrest of Raul Ayala, a neighbor of Edna T. Schubert, who is charged with second-degree murder in the 21-year-old cold case, brought closure to the victim’s family.

"I had a chance to sit down with the family, and they were very happy that someone is being brought to justice," Catalina said. "Every family deserves that."

Catalina began his career in law enforcement thanks to his girlfriend’s mother (who later became his mother-in-law), who told him about the test to join the Suffolk County Police Department. Catalina told his brother about it.

"We both took the test," said Catalina, a graduate of Sayville High School and SUNY Oneonta. "He got hired and I didn’t."

Undeterred, Catalina joined the NYPD a few years later, eventually becoming the commanding officer of the NYPD gang unit.

"At that time in Queens, we were really focused on an emerging gang called MS-13," Catalina said. "In the early part of my gang career, ‘99, 2000, we dealt a lot with the MS-13 gang in South Jamaica, in Flushing. They had a clique down in the Rockaways as well, so I spent a lot of time early on familiarizing myself with MS-13."

Rising through the ranks

Catalina and his colleagues later worked extensively with Nassau and Suffolk police as MS-13 moved from west to east, and he believes Long Island law enforcement is better prepared for gang activity than it was in the 2000s. He is encouraged by Tierney’s global approach to gang cases. Rather than prosecute individuals individually for separate acts of gang-related crime, Tierney’s office has sometimes prosecuted gangs collectively. One example of that, Catalina said, is the 148-count indictment resulting from the long term investigation into the "No Fake Love" gang. The 2022 indictment detailing a homicide, shootings, carjacking and other crimes named 18 gang members as defendants.

"I think the fact that we have been able to prosecute successfully those large groups has made Suffolk County a much safer place," Catalina said.

Catalina left the NYPD gang squad "kicking and screaming" after he was named commander of Public Service Area 6, a precinct that encompasses public housing in upper Manhattan. He was later named commander of the 32nd Precinct in Harlem.

Working as a precinct commander, Catalina said, prepared him for his new role because it taught him the importance of relationships with community groups and residents. That lesson, he said, led him to build ties with the community during his tenure with the sheriff’s office and as SCPD deputy commissioner.

"I see a tremendous amount of value in that," Catalina said. "There are going to be times when things aren’t perfect and maybe people aren’t thrilled with the Suffolk County Police Department. Those relationships are going to get through those times. Being able to talk through issues where we don’t see eye to eye is going to make a difference."

Nassau County recently agreed to allow 10 police detectives to be deputized as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. But Suffolk County has no plans to engage in "proactive immigration enforcement," Catalina said.

"We want every person in Suffolk County to feel safe coming to the police department if they are a victim of a crime," he said. "Everybody will be treated equally and their immigration status will never be questioned or discussed."

Andrew Case, a supervising attorney with the civil rights organization LatinoJustice, said he was encouraged to hear Catalina explain the department's stance on immigration at a recent community meeting in Huntington.

LatinoJustice sued Suffolk in 2015, accusing the department of widespread discrimination against Latinos. The lawsuit said that police continued to engage in discriminatory behavior even after the Justice Department launched an investigation into the Suffolk force in the wake of a fatal attack on an immigrant from Ecuador, Marcelo Lucero, in 2008 by a group of teens. Suffolk police eventually entered an agreement to reform its policies with DOJ in 2014.

Suffolk and LatinoJustice settled the lawsuit in 2023, with the county agreeing to codify elements of a police reform plan — including equipping officers with body cameras, public disclosure of traffic stop data, and the creation of precinct advisory boards — that were adopted by lawmakers in 2021. 

Case said LatinoJustice is concerned that Suffolk may adopt the NYPD's approach to creating a gang database. He said Blacks and Latinos were placed in the database for reasons that had nothing to do with public safety, such as wearing a Central American soccer jersey.

"Ninety-nine percent of the people in that database are Black or Latino," Case said. "The Proud Boys are not in the database. The mafia is not in the database."

Case said he was encouraged to hear Catalina say the department will target motorists who speed or drive dangerously, with less focus on minor violations. Case said that approach will help combat racial bias in traffic stops. 

"We will be watching closely," Case said. "We will continue to monitor their compliance with the settlement."

Tracey Edwards, the Long Island regional director of the NAACP, said Catalina has proved to be concerned about the community as undersheriff and deputy commissioner. She applauded Suffolk's immigration stance. "We want to make sure everybody is comfortable talking to police," she said. "We don't want victims hiding in the shadows."

Support from the ground

Catalina’s confirmation was welcomed by the politically powerful Suffolk Police Benevolent Association, the county’s largest law enforcement union. PBA president Lou Civello said Catalina’s experience and work ethic made him a good fit.

"His calm demeanor, keen intellect and discerning spirit make him not only an incredibly effective leader, but one well suited to move our department forward despite all of the current challenges faced by law enforcement," Civello said in a statement.

Trotta also said he believes Catalina will be a good police commissioner. He was in the legislature's chamber right before his colleagues confirmed Catalina's nomination, but left to protest what he describes as the PBA's oversize influence in county government. 

"I didn't abstain," Trotta said. "I walked out."

Catalina eventually rose to the rank of NYPD deputy chief. He played leadership roles in some of the city’s most high profile events, including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the New York City Marathon.

Catalina had worked with Toulon when the new commissioner was with the NYPD gang unit and Toulon was a top official with the New York City Department of Correction. When Toulon became sheriff in 2018, Catalina joined him as undersheriff, leading the agency’s intelligence-gathering efforts and sharing information with Suffolk police and other law enforcement agencies.

In addition to their work, Catalina and Toulon have something else in common: They are both Yankees fans. (Toulon was a bat boy for the team in 1979 and 1980.) Suffolk's new commissioner is also an avid golfer, fisherman and boater. 

Toulon said he was impressed by how much Catalina cared about people incarcerated in Suffolk jails. The then-undersheriff worked to expand access to substance abuse care and other rehabilitation programs, he said. 

When Catalina joined the SCPD in January 2024, Suffolk County had been without a commissioner approved by the legislature since Rodney Harrison — also a former top NYPD official — resigned shortly after Romaine’s November 2023 election.

After decades as a top official at the NYPD, the nation’s largest police department, Catalina had finally made it to the agency that inspired his law enforcement career.

"Growing up here, admiring the work that the Suffolk County Police Department did, kind of led me to that life," Catalina said. "I always wanted to be a police officer in Suffolk."