Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Safer Streets: Governor Hochul Highlights More Than $21 Million Investment in Law Enforcement Technology Across Long Island Police Agencies

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul visited the Village of Garden City Police Department to highlight more than $21 million in state investments that are modernizing law enforcement technology and equipment across Long Island's law enforcement agencies. The visit included a tour and demonstration featuring the Department's state-of-the-art technology purchased with the State's law enforcement technology grants. Distributed to 378 police departments and sheriffs' offices statewide, $127 million in grant funding is delivering results by improving officer safety, protecting New Yorkers and strengthening operations. Governor Hochul's investments in public safety have contributed to a 14 percent decline in reported crime on Long Island while shooting deaths reported by the Nassau County Police Department decreased 75 percent.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr has photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 Thank you very much Mayor and to our Police Commissioner for the incredible work that you do every day. I worked closely with law enforcement my entire life, and whether it's a small community or a large city, there's always that stress factor. And so, I'm always grateful for those who are willing to be trained, go through the rigors of preparation to be able to wear the uniform and the badge and to be willing to put your lives on the line every single day.

Please know, as the Governor of a state like New York, we are always forever grateful to the men and women in uniform, so thank you. And we'll always fund you, not defund you, and that's what we're here to talk about today. Also Mayor, from my time in local government, I had a town and had two villages and two Mayors I worked with as well.

And I grew up in a village and I have such an appreciation for the passion that a mayor has for their own community and to make sure that the quality of life is superior. And I want to commend you on what you've done here in Garden City, on your leadership and our trustees as well - and again, the Village Administrator and Commissioner Jackson for keeping us safe in the inspector. And our Chief Holland from the Hempstead Police Department has joined us.

This is a great community, but also, to make it even greater, we can make it safer. And that's why it was so important for me to have a fund for law enforcement technology grants to be able to respond to the needs of local communities that are looking to upgrade. And we had a conversation inside the CAD system, the system of cameras was literally 30 years old. And I've got to think there's been many variations of technology that have come and gone that you just were not able to [get] without the resources to acquire.

So here in 2025 heading into 2026, I'm proud that you could have the most state-of-the-art technology, the most sophisticated technology, and to use that for crime fighting. And that's why I've allocated $127 million statewide to make this money available. And that includes 2.1 million for agencies across Long Island. And what you've done here is you've been able to pinpoint an officer's exact location - a caller's exact location or whoever you need to be tracking and just learning about how to make sure that we can use cell phone data and maximize our capabilities to respond to people's calls to 9-1-1, and also to thwart crimes that are being committed.

I don't need to tell you this, in an emergency every second matters. It can be the matter of life and death. And so we're focusing on this, focusing on these investments to create a more holistic approach to government and public safety. And Statewide I've been very committed, from supporting our District Attorneys to our law enforcement to the courts.

We focused on allocating more money than ever before in the history of New York - $3 billion since I've been Governor, just four years. We've invested in our local SNUG programs, Project RISE here in Nassau County and really just trying to help all the ways we can support these entities and these organizations.

But also we've done our part with the State Legislature. I've had to change some laws. Some that I believe the bail laws that had gone too far, skewed against the efforts to protect our communities and we made those changes. We also changed discovery laws which most people don't think about every day, but our District Attorneys certainly did.

And when the discovery laws were enacted a few years ago, basically there were thousands and thousands of cases being dismissed. Cases that have been investigated by police departments, brought to courts, and because of some technicality, were thrown out. In fact, 94 percent of domestic violence cases are being thrown out on technicality.

So I had to work hard, major fights, but I got that through the legislature. Also, our red flag laws, keeping guns out of the hands of those who do harm to themselves or others. We are leading the nation with changes we have made, putting the responsibility on more than just law enforcement, but others in the community to send up that red flag when they know something is not right - that this person could be a mass shooter or someone who needs help. And that's exactly what we're doing. And I want to thank you for what you're doing here in Garden City. I track numbers all the time. Statistics on crimes, I see them every week. And since I came into office in 2021 crime is down 18 percent here, 18 percent in your community - and even year over year.

From this year, from last year to this year, violent crime is down 14 percent. That is a major drop in one year. And I want to commend our law enforcement, burglaries down about 34 percent and that's how we fight crime. Again the best technology, keeping people safe.

And you mentioned some of this technology equipment here. I know that these license plate readers are making a huge difference - and this is so important. Every police department needs to have license plate readers to do their jobs. The drones - you talked about how you protected the thousands of people who came here not long ago with the Ryder Cup, and that went off beautifully in terms of not necessarily people's behavior, but in terms of your job to keep people safe here.

And I have examples - we did this up in Buffalo where I'm from, and there was an individual who wandered off out of a senior home, someone with Alzheimer's and were literally buried in a snowbank and they couldn't find them, didn't know where anybody was. And they used technology that we had literally given them a couple weeks before to find an individual through the drones being able to scan a large vast area of land.

So there's so many ways that lives are saved, criminals are thwarted, cases are brought, and I want to make sure that we people here know that we're very serious about our responsibility to keep Long Islanders and New Yorkers safe. So I'm just here to say thank you. We know that one crime victim is one too many, so we're not spiking the football about these crime numbers.

But there was a time when they could have been going up 14 percent a year, 18 percent a year, and look at this trajectory - because of all the hard work and the investments that are made in the dedication of our local police department. So that's why I come here - yes, to talk about the money. We're able to give you almost half a million dollars for you to be able to acquire the best of the best equipment, have the training involved, make sure all your members of your force here have everything they need. But making sure that we do everything we humanly can to keep our communities great, communities like Garden City, as safe as they possibly can be.

So I want to introduce our Commissioner of Police Kenneth Jackson and get some of his insights on how this technology has been used.

Contact the Governor's Press Office