November 2015

Newsletter Publication of the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office

Thank you for taking the time to read the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office Newsletter.  In this issue, you will find information about many of our programs and read about some of our staff that have been the recipients of awards for their work on behalf of Suffolk's residents.

I would like to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season. Thanksgiving is one of the busiest times of the year for travel and due to the volume of traffic, there is always the potential for more accidents.  Our Deputy Sheriffs will be stepping up patrols and looking for drivers that are not obeying traffic laws.  We are urging everyone to be especially mindful when driving -- stay off the phone and be patient with other drivers that are also traveling to spend time with their families and go shopping.  

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VINCENT  F. DeMARCO
Suffolk County Sheriff

The Sheriff's Emergency Response Team put on a great show for the public. The event also featured our popular K9 dmonstrations, a bike rodeo, jail tours, face painting, balloon art and much more. We hope you will join us next year at this annual event which coincides with New York State Sheriff's Week in New York State.  

Suffolk County Deputy Sheriffs, Correction Officers and civilian staff received some impressive awards this year.  Sheriff Vincent DeMarco paid special tribute to staff during an honorary dinner held at the Long Island Aquarium in June.  Officers were also recognized by Mothers Against Drunk Driving for excellence in law enforcement during their annual awards ceremony.  In June, Sheriff DeMarco and members of his staff were recognized by the organization Council for Unity for work with their anti-gang initiative, and in October, the Amistad L.I. Black Bar Association honored the Sheriff at their annual awards ceremony.  The Sheriff's Office also welcomed many new recruits to the ranks of Deputy Sheriff and Correction Officer during ceremonies throughout the spring and summer. We are proud of all of our law enforcement officers and staff for the sacrifices they make and for all they do to make our communities safer.

Students from Suffolk County Sheriff Vincent DeMarco’s Criminal Justice Class at Dowling College got a close up view of corrections when they toured the County’s Riverhead Jail during the month of October.   The students met with the County Sheriff in his office and then were escorted through many of the jail’s housing areas, the holding pen, internal intelligence operations, and its specialized units where correctional staff book and perform iris scans of incoming inmates. 

The Sheriff’s Office provides tours of the Riverhead Jail for more than a thousand high school and college students each year through its popular Youth Enlightenment Seminar (YES) initiative.  The Jail also offers personal YES tours for parents to accompany their at-risk youth to give them a firsthand look at life behind bars.

At the end of each tour, participants gather in the jail's Chapel area where current inmates volunteer to speak to young people about the consequences of making poor choices. 

“These tours give students a realistic view of corrections work and, from a different perspective, what daily life is like for an inmate at the County Jail.  You just can’t get this kind of understanding from a TV show or from reading a textbook,” stated DeMarco. 

More information about tours and other community programs may be found on the Sheriff’s Office’s website at www.suffolksheriff.com.   

On September 25th, Sheriff DeMarco played host to a large contingent of officials from the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) and Rikers Island, New York City’s main correctional complex.  The group visited the Suffolk County Correctional Facility to learn more about DeMarco’s correctional programs – in particular, the award winning Council for Unity and Youth Tier programs.  This is the second time that Riker’s officials have come to the jail in the past year.  DOC Commissioner Joseph Ponte and members of his staff visited Riverhead last September to discuss correctional reforms. 

The visit comes at a time of heightened focus on issues related to crime reduction strategies and prisoner rehabilitation, and Ponte’s well-publicized goals to implement changes at Riker’s Island to help reduce violence.

The County Sheriff has been at the forefront of a national trend towards developing proven and effective inmate rehabilitation programs to reduce recidivism and future crime.  Due in part to these efforts, there has been a significant decrease in the county jail population since he first took office.  In 2005, the daily jail population averaged close to 2000 inmates, and now that figure is typically less than 1450. The County's taxpayers have saved millions of dollars due to the drop in the inmate population and the Sheriff's fight to reduce new costly jail construction projects. 

Sheriff DeMarco also serves as the Chair of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council where he has been working to improve coordination across the law enforcement continuum.

Following the visit, Commissioner Ponte stated, “We are pleased to have this opportunity to learn about these groundbreaking programs from Sheriff DeMarco and his Office and are eager to apply their insights to help reduce violence in our facilities...".

Suffolk County welcomed 46 new recruits to the rank of Correction Officer during a ceremony on October 30, 2015.  In order to graduate from the Police Academy, all recruits must complete a community service project.  Class 15-155 conducted a food drive for the Long Island-based non-profit organization Island Harvest. 

On the right, a student practices driving while wearing special simulation goggles that create the feeling of driving while impaired by alcohol or other substances. More information is available on the Sheriff's Office's  website.

While New York’s Graduated License Law took effect in 2010, many parents are still unaware of the restrictions on drivers with learner permits and junior drivers under the age of 18. He is urging parents to go to the Sheriff’s Office’s website to check out its Teen Driver Safety webpage to learn about these initiatives and familiarize themselves with the restrictions on Junior Permit holders and Junior License holders.

Car crashes are a leading cause of death among teens and new drivers, largely because they are inexperienced and not as attentive to the drivers around them.  New York’s Graduated License Law was enacted to ease teens into driving by increasing privileges as they become more experienced drivers.  Another program, the Teen Electronic Event Notification Services, notifies parents or guardians of youth under the age of 18 if there is any activity on their child’s driver’s license record, such as a ticket, accident or suspension. 

“Young people tend to want to push the limits when they first obtain their driver’s permit or their junior driver’s license, and if parents are uninformed about New York’s Graduated License Law, they can’t reinforce important rules when their children begin to drive,” stated Suffolk County Sheriff Vincent DeMarco. He added, “There are also ways that parents can be notified if their teen is texting and driving, or if they receive a ticket. These tools give parents some control of their teenagers’ driving habits by allowing them to extend or restrict privileges based on their child’s behavior behind the wheel.” 

Complete information has been posted on the Sheriff’s Office website at www.suffolksheriff.com. Click on Community Programs and then Teen Driver Safety.