Prior to 1960, law enforcement in Suffolk County was the responsibility of local towns and villages as well as the
New York State Police. From the 17th century until well into the 20th century, many of these jurisdictions employed only part-time
constables, who were usually appointed by local communities and paid to enforce court orders. Additional fees were paid for making arrests, serving warrants and transporting prisoners. Few of these constables had any formal law enforcement training, hours were often long and pay was low. The
New York State Police arrived on
Long Island in 1917, and many towns and villages began forming their own small police forces soon thereafter. Following
World War II, there was a push to unite the 33 separate law enforcement agencies then operating within Suffolk County. Following the passage, in 1958, of state legislation creating the
county executive form of government, a referendum was held on the creation of a county police force. The five western towns—
Babylon,
Huntington,
Islip,
Smithtown and
Brookhaven—voted in favor. The five eastern towns—
Riverhead,
Southold,
Shelter Island,
East Hampton, and
Southampton—opted to retain their own police forces, and do so to this day, with the Suffolk County Police Department providing support and specialized services. The towns that voted in favor thus agreed to turn over all their police functions to the new agency. In addition to traditional uniformed patrol services, the new agency agreed to provide: a Detective Bureau, a Communications Bureau, an Identification Bureau, a Central Records Bureau, and a police academy for training new officers. All incumbent town and village police officers serving in those areas that voted to join the
police district became members of the new department without further examination or qualification. In addition,
state troopers serving on Long Island who so desired could request appointment to the new force. Criminal investigators in the district attorney's office were appointed the new detectives. The serving town and village police chiefs were typically appointed inspectors, deputy chiefs or assistant chiefs in the new department. The remaining positions were filled by competitive civil service examinations. The Suffolk County Police Department officially came into being on January 1, 1960, with 619 sworn members. In recent years, Suffolk officers (along with the
Nassau County Police Department) have become well known in the New York area for their rate of pay, especially as compared with the nearby
New York City Police Department. In 2010, starting pay for a Suffolk patrol officer was approximately $59,000 annually. After five years of service, pay rose to $108,608, not including overtime, night differential and benefits. In 2019, starting pay was reduced to $41,000, but rose to $155,693 after 11.5 years. By 2021, nearly half of the Suffolk County Police Department earned more than $200,000. In 2011, the Suffolk County Police Department union formed a
Super PAC called the Long Island Law Enforcement Foundation. It spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in local elections each following year. In April 2016, county police officer Christopher McCoy pressured a female prisoner to have sex with him in an interrogation room. He was convicted in 2019 and sentenced to a year in confinement.
History of sex and race discrimination The
US Justice Department sued Suffolk in 1983 for discriminating against women and people with minority racial identities in police hiring. The county signed a consent decree three years later committing itself to increased minority hiring while denying any intentional discrimination. The number of officers with minority racial identities has remained small. A well-publicized cheating scandal on the 1996 police exam further undermined confidence in the fairness of the hiring process. A program aimed at increasing the number of Black and Hispanic cadets was struck down in 1997 as unconstitutional. In 2003, six female officers sued the department for sex discrimination over its pregnancy policy and won a judgment from the federal
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In 2006, a federal jury found that the Suffolk County Police Department had discriminated against female officers by denying them access to limited duty positions, for example, working the precinct desk, during their pregnancies. In 2006 Police Commissioner Richard Dormer announced that highway patrol and certain other units would undertake a pilot program whereby officers would record the race and/or ethnicity of drivers stopped for traffic violations. The purpose of the program, according to the commissioner, was to demonstrate that the department was not engaging in "
racial profiling." While Dormer denied any racial profiling by the department, he refused to disclose the results of the program. In February 2021,
WSHU reported that 90% of county police officers with the rank of "detective" or above were White. The county has a population that is about 80% White. It was reported that White candidates had been given examination answers before their promotion tests. An officer from outside the department was brought in to review the process.
Wrongful conviction of Marty Tankleff Suffolk County Police and their interrogation methods came under scrutiny due to the handling of the 1988 murder case of Seymour and Arlene Tankleff. The Tankleffs' only son,
Martin Tankleff, was wrongfully convicted of the crime after police coerced a confession using deception. Lead Detective Kevin James (Jim) McCready used a ruse in which he claimed that Seymour Tankleff had regained consciousness and had indicated that his son Martin was responsible for the crime. Tankleff was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to 50 years to life for the murder of his parents. After serving more than 17 years of imprisonment, his conviction was
vacated and he was released from prison in 2007. In 2017 Tankleff sued
Suffolk County, in addition to individuals who were police officers and county employees at the time of his arrest and trial. Tankleff was represented by
Barry Scheck of
Innocence Project in Manhattan. In 2018, Tankleff reached a settlement with Suffolk County for $10 million.
False arrest of reporter In July 2011, a news reporter, Philip Datz, was arrested by an officer of the Suffolk County Police Department and charged with 'obstruction of governmental administration'. According to the raw footage posted on YouTube, the credentialed cameraman had been recording the aftermath of a police chase from the opposite side of the street while in a public area when he was approached by the officer and told to "go away" without revealing any cause or reason. After departing and calling the department's Public Information Office, the videographer relocated a block away and began recording again. The officer pulled up in his cruiser and then arrested the videographer. Charges were later dropped, with the department's claim that officers would undergo 'retraining', but no other assertions have been made or promised. When the story was widely shared, many members of the public used the department's Facebook page to air their grievances, only to have their comments deleted and the page later closed to any new comments. The Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau subsequently found that the officer made a false arrest and violated department rules and procedures. In a settlement approved in 2014 by the Suffolk County Legislature, the Suffolk County Police Department agreed to annually train and test all police officers on the First Amendment right of the public and the media to observe, photograph and record police activity in public locations. The settlement also requires the SCPD to pay Datz $200,000 and create a Police-Media Relations Committee to address problems between the press and the Police Department. After public outcry over Datz's arrest, the SCPD also revised its rules and procedures to instruct officers that "members of the media cannot be restricted from entering and/or producing recorded media from areas that are open to the public, regardless of subject matter."
Criminal conviction of former Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke In November 2016, former Suffolk County Police Chief
James Burke was sentenced to 46 months in federal custody. He was convicted of assaulting a man in 2012 during an interrogation and obstructing a federal investigation. Burke violently assaulted a man in custody who had stolen a duffel bag from Burke's police vehicle. The duffel bag contained sex toys, a pornographic DVD and Viagra. Burke pleaded guilty in February 2016 to charges of a civil rights violation and
conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Thomas Spota, the then-district attorney in Suffolk County, was convicted in December 2019 of conspiracy to cover up Burke's violent assault. Christopher McPartland, who had been Suffolk County's top anti-corruption prosecutor, was also convicted in the conspiracy.
Rex Heuermann was charged as a main suspect in the Gilgo Beach killer case in 2023. Burke was reported to have blocked an FBI probe of the
Long Island serial killer case during his time as police chief.
Mafia brothels In October of 2024, 18-year Officer George Trimigliozzi was arrested as part of an
organized crime syndicate running several
brothels. ==Size and organization==