Westchester Police Commissioner To Retire Jan. 2

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY — Police Commissioner George N. Longworth will retire on Jan. 2, capping a 35-year law enforcement career in which he headed two police departments in Westchester County. He'll be practicing law again, at his firm in Dobbs Ferry.

Longworth, who has served as county police commissioner since January 2010, initially retired from law enforcement as chief of the Dobbs Ferry Police Department in 2007 to practice law. He returned to police work when County Executive Robert P. Astorino asked him to serve as commissioner of the Department of Public Safety.

“It has been my privilege to be the Westchester police commissioner these last eight years. I am proud of all we have accomplished at the county police," he said in a statement announcing his retirement. "This department is well prepared to meet the challenges that lie ahead. I would like to thank the men and women of the Department of Public Safety for the courage, dedication and professionalism they exhibit every day.”

Longworth began his police career as a special patrolman with the Department of Public Safety, patrolling parks during summers while he was attending Mercy College. He worked for the New York City Police Department before transferring to the Dobbs Ferry Police Department, where he served for 27 years. When he was appointed chief of police at age 32, he became the youngest person ever to hold that rank in Westchester.

Longworth, a Pace University Law School graduate, formed the law firm of Grant & Longworth in 2007 with Steven P. Grant, a Dobbs ferry village justice. He will return to the Dobbs Ferry firm in the New Year.

Longworth said he was proud of many initiatives launched during his tenure. These include:

• Creating a Real Time Crime Center, which operates out of county police headquarters in Hawthorne. It puts a massive data warehouse at a detective’s fingertips, including live traffic cameras; license plate readers; shared law enforcement databases of police, corrections and probation records and cases; public records and other open-source tracking technologies and other tools, including facial recognition software. This information is shared in real time with investigators in the field when a serious crime or incident occurs.
• Expanding county police participation on important federal-local task forces. Under Longworth’s leadership, the county police expanded its participation on the Joint Terrorist Task Force, enabling access to real-time intelligence about threats to Westchester and the New York City region; the Drug Enforcement Administration Diversion Task Force, which targets the illegal manufacture and sale of opioid medications; the FBI Cyber Crimes Division and the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force.
• Overseeing a $10 million renovation of the Westchester County Police Academy, which trains recruit and veteran officers alike from all police departments in Westchester and Putnam counties. The Police Academy curriculum also was upgraded to enhance instruction on counter-terrorism, active shooter incidents, crisis intervention and other emerging topics that pose new and challenging demands on law enforcement.
• Relocating and expanding the county police crime lab and Forensic Investigation Unit to the renovated Academy. The crime lab is the only one in New York State to be accredited in the following five disciplines: Firearms (Ballistics), Crime Scene Investigation, Latent Print Comparison, Latent Print Processing and Digital Evidence/Computer Forensics.
• Obtaining a second helicopter for the Aviation Unit and more sophisticated patrol boats for the Marine Unit.
• Upgrading the county police Bomb Squad to a Hazardous Devices Unit capable of responding to incidents involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive devices.
• Creating a Unified In-Service Training Program at the Police Academy to lower the cost of in-service training for participating municipal departments.
• Assigning police officers to serve as School Resource Officers in the Somers, Lakeland and North Salem school districts.
• Achieving the consolidation of the Town of Ossining Police Department and the Village of Mount Kisco Police Department into the Department of Public Safety, enabling both communities to provide enhanced police service at a lower cost.

Longworth said he was grateful to the Westchester County Chiefs of Police Association and the entire Westchester law enforcement community for their support through his career.

“I am proud to call myself a member of the Westchester law enforcement family,” he said. “There are multiple police agencies in our county, but we stand together as one in our commitment to keep the people of Westchester safe.”

PHOTO: Commissioner George Longworth/ Westchester County Police Department