Kevin Catalina nominated for Suffolk County police commissioner, county executive Romaine says
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Kevin Catalina, the Suffolk police department's second-in-command and a veteran of the NYPD, has been nominated to be Suffolk's new police commissioner.
Catalina, 57, currently the first deputy police commissioner in Suffolk, would lead one of the nation’s largest police departments if approved. The Suffolk County Legislature must vote on his nomination before it is final.
"He has proven himself as someone who knows what police work is," Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine said Wednesday as he announced Catalina’s nomination at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge. "He has proven himself a leader. He has proven himself and I have confidence in him to lead the department."
The legislature’s public safety committee is scheduled to review Catalina’s nomination Thursday. If approved, the nomination goes for a full vote of the legislature on Tuesday.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- Kevin Catalina, the Suffolk police department's second-in-command and a veteran of the NYPD, has been nominated to be Suffolk's new police commissioner by Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine.
- In the new role, Catalina, 57, currently the first deputy police commissioner in Suffolk, would lead one of the nation’s largest police departments. The Suffolk County Legislature must vote to confirm the nomination.
- The Suffolk police department has been without a commissioner approved by the legislature since Rodney K. Harrison resigned in December 2023 from the post.
Catalina, a Suffolk County resident, retired from the NYPD and began working as Suffolk County's undersheriff in August 2018. Catalina was named deputy police commissioner in Suffolk last January.
He worked for the NYPD for 27 years, rising to the rank of deputy chief and commanding units tasked with analyzing intelligence and preventing gang-related crimes. 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.
"I have been a Suffolk County resident my whole life. I grew up admiring the Suffolk County Police Department," Catalina said, speaking alongside Romaine. "I went into law enforcement a long, long time ago with the hopes of becoming a Suffolk County police officer, and a year ago I got the opportunity. It couldn’t have been a better year."
Catalina called the possibility of becoming Suffolk police commissioner "truly a dream come true."
"This is the best police department in the country, probably the world, and we are going to make it even better," he said. "I look forward to the opportunity, I look forward to working with the people of Suffolk County to make everybody safer."
Catalina touted what he said was a dramatic drop in violent crime in Suffolk, including what he said was a nearly 60% drop in homicides over the last four years. Catalina said he plans to concentrate on making Suffolk’s roadways safer by continuing to expand the number of officers that patrol county highways.
"We know that our roadways are too dangerous and that affects every citizen of Suffolk County," Catalina said.
He also said he would seek to target those who sell opioids, in an attempt to drive down the number of overdose deaths in the county.
Catalina became emotional at one point during Wednesday’s announcement, saying he wished his mother — who died Sunday — was there to see him nominated for the top cop post.
"I think my mother would be very proud, happy, that I am being considered for this position," he said. "I don’t think she ever expected it. As a mom, you don’t expect your crazy kid to end up in this spot."
![Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine, left, nominated Kevin Catalina,...](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.newsday.com%2Fimage-service%2Fversion%2Fc%3AMjhjNGNlY2YtMmZhYS00%3AZjdjY2IwYmQtZTAyMi00%2Flicop250130_photos.jpg%3Ff%3DLandscape%2B16%253A9%26w%3D768%26q%3D1&w=1920&q=80)
Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine, left, nominated Kevin Catalina, right, to serve as Suffold police commissioner at an announcement at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge on Wednesday. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Catalina, according to his LinkedIn page, graduated from SUNY Oneonta in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in business administration.
The Suffolk police department has been without a commissioner approved by the legislature since Rodney K. Harrison resigned in December 2023 from the post, which paid $220,000 annually. Last May, Harrison, who was Suffolk’s first Black police commissioner, took a job with a Uniondale-based risk management and security firm.
Chief of Department Robert Waring has been serving as Suffolk’s acting commissioner since January 2024. Waring recently told Romaine that he wants to return to his old position, as chief of department.
Romaine said he interviewed "a lot of people" for the commissioner job after Harrison resigned and chose Waring to lead the department in an acting capacity because of his 39 years of experience.
"He was a reluctant candidate, and I had to say, ‘Do me a favor. You have the experience, you have the ability. Please lead this department as acting commissioner,’" Romaine said. "I want to say thank you to Rob Waring for his leadership. He’s a true gentleman. He was a pleasure to work with."
Catalina joined the Conservative Party in 2017 — the same party that backed Democrat Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr. in his race for sheriff. Toulon later hand-picked Catalina for the undersheriff job, which then paid $139,000 annually.
Catalina began working as Suffolk County's undersheriff in August 2018. In 2017, while still with the NYPD, Catalina was paid $210,958, according to the website NYC Open Data.
Catalina and Toulon had been listed among the leadership of the school bus safety firm Transportation Safety Planning & Solutions Group of Melville. Spokespersons for both Toulon, listed as the senior executive consultant, and Catalina, a senior vice president, said that they had received Ethics Board approval for the roles.
Catalina, through a police department spokesperson, said last year that he was not compensated monetarily, had attended "a couple of consultation meetings" and had last been in contact with the company in March 2022 — when he was still working as the Suffolk undersheriff, leading the Suffolk jails' anti-gang efforts.
The leader of Suffolk’s largest police union endorsed Catalina’s nomination Wednesday.
"Kevin Catalina brings decades of law enforcement experience, a spirit of innovation and unsurpassed dedication to the role of Suffolk County Police Commissioner," Lou Civello, president of the Suffolk Police Benevolent Association, said in a statement.
Catalina’s NYPD tenure was not without controversy.
Three years into his NYPD career, Catalina was investigated by Internal Affairs, and ultimately disciplined, for taking part in a drunken, rowdy melee at a Washington, D.C., hotel, according to newspaper articles published at the time.
Catalina — then a 28-year-old assigned to the 103rd Precinct in Jamaica, Queens — was placed on administrative duty and stripped of his badge and gun, according to a June 1995 New York Times article.
According to the NYPD, the drunken incident in Washington included naked officers sliding down a banister. The New York Daily News referred to it at the time as the "Animal House" scandal.
The incident occurred when about 1,000 NYPD officers were in Washington to observe National Police Week, an annual event to recognize police officers who were killed in the line of duty.
According to a 1995 Washington Post article, the incident resulted in a "two-month investigation by 50 investigators from the Internal Affairs Bureau" that found two other NYPD officers "slid nude down the banisters of the Hyatt Regency hotel escalator before a cheering crowd of 150 guests."
In July 1995, then-NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton announced internal disciplinary charges against six officers involved, including Catalina, who was found to have been "unfit for duty due to the overindulgence of alcohol." Catalina's ultimate disciplinary penalty was not reported publicly.
Catalina was also named in several lawsuits alleging police misconduct, resulting in more than $850,000 in taxpayer-funded settlements, records show.
The website 50-a.org, which is a searchable website containing records from New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board, also shows Catalina was the subject of a handful of misconduct allegations claiming he cursed and used inappropriate physical force.
Catalina was alleged to have intervened to prevent a city council member from receiving a traffic ticket while he was the deputy inspector in the 44th Precinct in the Bronx, according to a report published in the Daily News. In 2020, the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board fined Bronx Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson $5,000 after she admitted calling Catalina, then a deputy inspector, some six years earlier when she was pulled over for talking on her cellphone.
"While Gibson claims she didn’t explicitly ask Catalina to intervene on her behalf, Catalina called the 44th Precinct’s desk officer, who contacted the cop writing the ticket and told her not to do so," the Daily News reported, with the publication adding it was unclear if Catalina was investigated for his alleged role in the incident.
Catalina, responding to questions about his tenure at the NYPD, told Newsday in an email message that he was never found to have committed any wrongdoing.
"I have served with distinction as an innovative crime fighter, supervisor and leader throughout my career in the NYPD," Catalina said. " ... It is common practice to name leadership, including a precinct commander, in a lawsuit filed against the department, however, I was never personally liable in the lawsuits."
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