Long Island officials are showing off their newly expanded crime analysis center – calling it the “crown jewel” of a growing network of cutting-edge law enforcement facilities across New York.
The revamped Suffolk Crime Analysis Center in Yaphank – which received nearly $1 million from the state to triple its size and double staff – will serve as a model for its sisters in New York’s Crime Analysis Center Network, officials said.
“This is now the crown jewel,” said Kevin Catalina, deputy commissioner for the Suffolk County Police Department.
“It’s the best and brightest. I’m sure that I’ll have some competition from the other 10, but there are 11 centers that are set up like this one across the state.”
The crime analysis center network — which includes a facility in New York City that opened in 2023 — is designed to help fight crime by pooling together law enforcement agencies and state-of-the-art technologies into regional hubs.
When the Suffolk County center originally opened in 2019, it was relatively spartan: a 1,700-square-foot space with only enough seating for 16 people, officials said.
The expansion completed last year swelled the facility to 5,000 square feet and 45 seats for staff pulled from a constellation of agencies, from the Suffolk County Police Department to the NYPD and MTA.
Within the facility’s walls, staff can scan multiple police radio frequencies and a network of hundreds of surveillance cameras as crimes are unfolding in real-time, footage that can be displayed on a 24-foot-long video wall, officials said.
The entire statewide network received nearly 131,000 requests for help last year, with 30,000 of those being handled by the Suffolk County center, according to officials.
The governor’s office says the system’s upgrade coincided with a 7% drop in reported crime on Long Island during the first nine months of last year, compared to the same span in 2023.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed spending $13 milion – a nearly 300% increase in funding – in her latest budget plan to create the New York State Crime Analysis and Joint Special Operations Command Headquarters, a hub for the 11 centers in the network.
