Checking off a top priority of his new administration, County Executive Edward Romaine has announced the leadership of the Suffolk Police.
Continuing in the role as acting commissioner will be Robert Waring, who took over the department after the November departure of Rodney Harrison, the Steve Bellone administration’s top cop. Romaine announced Kevin Catalina, a Suffolk Sheriff’s Department undersheriff, as a deputy police commissioner, along with Belinda Alvarez-Groneman, a retired county police detective.
The appointments make good on the new county executive’s pledge to look locally for the department’s leadership, though he said he is keeping the door open for future changes, including making Waring’s role permanent. Romaine noted that his transition team vetted more than a dozen “highly qualified” candidates from enforcement operations in New York City and other parts of the country. A top candidate for commissioner was department veteran Stuart Cameron, who left to take over the Old Westbury Police force. The administration did not say if interviews for the department were still ongoing.
Serving as department chief before assuming the acting commissioner title, Waring is the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the nearly 2,500-member department. The 37-year police veteran will retain the department chief position for now as he serves as commissioner, according to the administration, and is expected to continue at his $264,000 base salary.
Catalina was appointed undersheriff in 2018 by Sheriff Errol Toulon and was considered for the top spot, sources said. He is a former official with the New York City Police Department.
Alvarez-Groneman rose through the county police ranks, starting as a patrol officer in the First Precinct. She became a police detective and retired as a special assistant to the commissioner in 1999. The new deputy was active in politics, serving on the staff of former Congressman Lee Zeldin and as president of the Suffolk County Hispanic Republican Committee. She was a Romaine Transition Team member who is chairwoman of the Suffolk Community College Foundation.
The Romaine law enforcement brass follows in the wake of a scandal-ridden law enforcement team under Steve Bellone. The former department chief, Jim Burke, was convicted of federal corruption charges along with disgraced District Attorney Tom Spota and his deputy, Chris McPartland. Burke was accused by law enforcement officials of stymying the Gilgo murder investigation and was busted for beating up a suspect accused in the robbery of ammo, sex paraphernalia, and porn from his unlocked police vehicle. Spota and McPartland were jailed for covering it up.
Romaine made tackling the crime wave and the illicit drug epidemic, both of which he blames on the policies of the Democrats, major focuses of his law enforcement agenda. He ran for the county’s top post promising to put more cops on the street and fill budgeted detective positions left open by Bellone.