5-Point Plan To Strengthen Red Flag Laws Unveiled By Suffolk

HAUPPAUGE, NY — A five-point plan with the intention of combating gun violence was unveiled by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison on Friday at the H. Lee Denison Building in Hauppauge.

The initiatives are meant to prevent people who show signs of being a threat to themselves or others from purchasing or possessing firearms, the county stated. Suffolk County leads New York state in Red Flag warnings, with Suffolk police seizing approximately 160 guns under New York’s Red Flag law since 2019.

"We're not going to stand around and wait for a mass shooting incident to happen here at home," Bellone said.

The county's five-point plan will prevent people showing signs of being a threat to themselves or others from purchasing or possessing firearms.

The five-point plan is:

1. Bellone will sign an executive order that codifies Suffolk's aggressive approach to using Red Flag law to protect residents.

2. Education. Earlier this month, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a package of gun-safety measures that includes a bill that would expand the state's Red Flag law to add mental health providers to the list of people who can ask a court to remove a person's firearms. Suffolk County has created an in-depth presentation with information and procedures aimed at empowering teachers, school board administrators and mental health professionals.

3. Work with state lawmakers to expand Red Flag laws to include threats of violence directed towards groups of people — not only threats aimed at just oneself or individuals.

4. Increase the Suffolk County Police Department's monitoring of social media. Examing social media is a key component of Red Flag investigations, Bellone said. Police will proactively look for threats of violence, especially threats made against school buildings.

5. If prevention efforts around the Red Flag law fail to stop a dangerous person from acting, the Suffolk County Police Department will do everything it can to be ready to respond. The number of Suffolk police active shooter drills will be doubled. The drills are open to all law enforcement agencies in the county.

Suffolk police officers are on social media to look for potential threats, and if any are found, they inform their fellow officers on patrol, Harrison said.

Harrison said his department plans to take measures to get gang members causing violence off the streets of Suffolk through a gang unit team. The team builds conspiracy cases against gang members, which Harrison said worked in New York City and guaranteed it would be successful in Suffolk.

"The men and women of the Suffolk County Police Department are ready and prepared to make this a safe county," Harrison said.

Bellone is also set to sign an Executive Order that would require the police department to file for an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) whenever an officer has probable cause to believe that someone is a threat to themselves or others.

"At a time when gun violence is growing, after a mass shooting in Buffalo, after children were slaughtered in Uvalde, the Supreme Court is actually rolling back gun safety laws," Bellone said.

Bellone is referencing the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on Thursday to overturn a New York law that limits people from carrying concealed handguns. The law had been on the book for more than 100 years before its overturn.

The 6-3 decision, with an opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas, ruled that the state's restrictions violate the Second Amendment.

"It is even more critical that we do everything we can to make sure that people who are potentially a danger to themselves or to others are not in possession of these guns," Bellone said.