Search for Suffolk's next top cop enters final stage

The more than six-month search for the next Suffolk County police commissioner has been narrowed to 20 candidates, with a year-end target date to select a leader for one of the nation’s largest departments.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone will appoint the new top cop from among at least three candidates. The new commissoner will be the first since the department adopted a reform plan spurred by the Black Lives Matter movement, officials leading the search said.

Deputy county executives Jon Kaiman and Vanessa Baird-Streeter, who led the search committee and the panel that submitted the Suffolk County Police Reform and Reinvention Task Force Report, said the steps outlined in the 1,000-page plan form the foundation in the search for a new commissioner.

What residents want

The next leader of the nation’s 13th-largest police department, with 2,400 officers, needs a strong background in public safety, Kaiman and Baird-Streeter said. The panel heard from thousands of people during the seven-month period, the officials said. Residents said they want a commissioner with a commitment to change, social justice and fairness.

Advocates for changes in county police practices praised some elements of the plan, including those that would end vehicle searches based solely on driver consent during traffic stops.

Some community activists and residents criticized the plan when it was adopted this year by the county legislature, saying the document didn't go far enough in addressing racial and ethnic bias in policing or creating accountability for officer misconduct.

"The overwhelming concern is to ensure there is fair justice and equitable policing within Suffolk County," Baird-Streeter told Newsday in a recent interview about conversations with community members. "They want to build relationships with the police department. They want the police department to know their communities."

The successful candidate will replace Geraldine Hart, the former FBI official who led the department for three years before resigning in May to become head of security at Hofstra University. Longtime Chief of Department Stuart Cameron has been serving as acting commissioner since Hart stepped down from the $175,288 job.

Search yielded 54 resumes

Kaiman and Baird-Streeter declined to name applicants, but said the nine-member search panel received 54 resumes from across the nation representing a variety of backgrounds and experience, including women and people of color.

"We have people from all over the country," Baird-Streeter said. "Northeast, yes, South, yes, middle America, yes."

"It’s a broad spectrum from all over, including the local area," Kaiman added.

"It is an extraordinary process to be able to sit and talk with these high-level law-enforcement professionals from all over the country and get their insight," Kaiman said. "They have read our plan, our police reform plan, so they are looking at what we are doing, they are following us, and now we have this opportunity to literally engage them on the substance of what we have done and what we are doing."

Police reform a major focus

The new commissioner will be responsible for implementing the reforms in the policing plan, including the expanded use of body cameras, deployment of mental health experts to some 911 calls and designation of the Suffolk Human Rights Commission to oversee complaints about police misconduct and bias.

"It really is helpful to have these conversations with the candidates because we learn a lot more about them and we learn a lot more about policing in other areas of the country," Baird-Streeter said.

The next leader will face the challenge of reforming a department that has been criticized for corruption and abuse. In March, two Suffolk officers accused of beating a suspected auto thief were suspended and three more were placed on modified duty for allegedly failing to intervene.

Former Suffolk Police Chief James Burke pleaded guilty in 2016 to violating the civil rights of a Smithtown man he beat up in a police precinct and then orchestrating a departmental cover-up of the crime. Burked served most of his 46-month sentence before he was released.

The department, along with the Nassau County Police Department, has also struggled to recruit minorities.

Issues in hiring

A Newsday investigation in May reported that Black and Hispanic candidates were eliminated from contention during the hiring process, which includes a physical fitness test and a background investigation, at higher rates than their white counterparts despite decades of monitoring by the U.S. Justice Department.

Newsday found 1,419 Black applicants for the Suffolk department produced only 16 Black cops in the four years after a 2015 test.

The Newsday investigation also showed that Nassau County hired just 36 Black police officers from a pool of 2,508 Black applicants who had taken the 2012 police test. Of 3,389 Hispanic applicants from the same test, 89 were hired.

Baird-Streeter and Kaiman acknowledged that distrust of police remains high in minority communities.

"It is so important for the leader of the department to be able to establish relationships within communities, particularly with those marginalized communities that don't have a good relationship with the police department and police officers," Baird-Streeter said.

Understanding diverse communities

Civil rights activists agree that the next commissioner will need to work to overcome suspicions of residents who believe they have been targeted by police because of their race or ethnic background.

"Long Island continues to struggle with racial disparities, and we need a leader who will be cognizant of Black and brown communities’ needs," said reform panel member Serena Liguori, the director of New Hour for Women and Children, a social services agency that provides support to incarcerated women and their families. "The police should not only reflect the communities they work with but also understand the communities’ needs."

Many officers, meanwhile, are demoralized by what they say is unfair criticism of law enforcement and a political culture that disrespects their work, union leaders say. Suffolk Police Benevolent Association President Noel DiGerolamo, like Liguori, believes the reform plan should be a priority for the next commissioner.

"I have confidence in the administration to do a thorough search and find the best candidate to move forward the reform process," DiGerolamo said.

The search is almost over

Kaiman and Baird-Streeter said a list of finalists will be sent to Bellone soon.

Asked why the search has taken more than six months, Baird-Streeter said: "I think it was important for us to ensure that we are really doing our research on our candidates, looking at the references that they provided, looking at the work they have done in the communities they serve."