Suffolk County            Sheriff's Office

Since taking office in 2018, Sheriff Errol D. Toulon, Jr. has made it a priority to enhance the transparency and accountability of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office.  Through innovative new trainings, policies, procedures and incident review protocols, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office has taken tremendous strides to improve operations as well as public confidence.

​

​

Office of Professional Standards

​

In order to promote professionalism and set a desired standard of excellence in public service, Sheriff Toulon created the Office of Professional Standards within the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office. Established in August 2022, OPS is responsible for assuring all personnel employed by the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office perform their duty and serve the public in a manner that is consistent with the expected level of  professionalism and integrity that is necessary to earn and maintain public confidence in the Sheriff’s Office.

​

Office of Professional Standards is staffed by 1 account clerk, 9 investigators, 2 Investigator Sergeants an 1 Investigator Lieutenant. Uniquely situated within the chain of command, OPS answers directly to the Sheriff via the first Undersheriff. This line type organizational structure promotes a direct transfer of unfiltered information directly to the Sheriff.

​

Goals and responsibilities of OPS

• Encourage and develop positive community relationships through professional and transparent interactions.

• Address every complaint received in a professional and courteous manner.

• Conduct all Internal Investigations.

• Review and evaluate policies and procedures to determine if current, effective and relevant to achieve objectives.

• Foster an atmosphere of employment that promotes professional public service and supports the Sheriff’s community relations efforts and initiatives.

 

 

Quality Assurance & Integrity Unit

 

In order to promote the belief that “A positive relationship between law enforcement and the public they serve, fostered by confidence and trust is essential to effectiveness”, Sheriff Toulon created, staffed and implemented the Quality Assurance and Integrity unit within the Sheriff’s Office Internal Affairs Bureau. Established in January 2020, the mission of the QA&I Unit is to review and evaluate prior incidents involving allegations of employee misconduct, with the intention of identifying factors that contributed to poor decisions and actions that may have resulted in misconduct. One of the overall objectives of the QA&I Unit is to prevent recidivism through proactive monitoring and corrective measures.

 

Goals and responsibilities of the QA & I Unit:

• Review allegations of unprofessional conduct to identify factors that may have contributed to the complaint.

• Review allegations of misconduct to identify factors that may have contributed to the behavior.

• Identify and analyze occurrences of misconduct to identify key contributing factors and/or trends and patterns.

• Share findings with administrators to develop and implement training and policies to prevent reoccurrence. 

• Recommend corrective measures.