Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Nominates Steven G. James to Serve as Superintendent of The New York State Police

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced her nomination of Steven G. James to serve as the Superintendent of the New York State Police. Acting Superintendent James will lead the New York State Police in an acting role as he awaits confirmation by the Senate.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

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

Please be seated. What an extraordinary day for the people of the State of New York because we know how important the New York State police are to protecting the security of our people. And as the Governor of this State, I'm so proud of this institution, this organization, steeped in history, a long legacy of service and protecting the people of this great State.

So, I'm grateful to all of you. In my opinion, you are the unsung heroes. You are the backbone of our efforts to make sure that people wake up every single day without the worry that something could happen to them or their families or their businesses. So, I come here with a heart full of gratitude to all of you and the men and women that you represent.

And today is going to be a great day as we talk about the sixty-five hundred people of this institution, this organization, and how we can help them with new leadership as well. So today we're here to renew our commitment to the people of this great State and the vital work that you do every single day, and now we have an opportunity – an extraordinary privilege of mine is to appoint a new Superintendent of the New York State Police, and this will be our opportunity to lead a new generation to talk about how public service means so much, and those who are willing to put on a uniform and to go into harm's way every single day, not knowing what could be behind a door.

What happens when they pull over someone on a dark highway? They go in there fearless, and I'm in awe of that. And I want everyone to know that I was very intentional in selecting a leader who understood starting out from the very beginning, what it was like to be in the shoes of our State Police, someone who rose to the ranks, someone who's led with integrity and dignity.

And I want to be introducing that individual in one moment, but I want to acknowledge Major Dennis Schager, the Troop Commander of the State Police, Troop G. I want to thank him for all his extraordinary work. There's someone who I'll recognize as well. I guess I might tip everything off – Dawn James, Steven James’s wife, Michele Tate, his sister has joined us. Charles Murphy, the President of the Police Benevolent Association of the State Troopers. Thank you for what you do. Tim Diamond, the President of the New York State Investigators, has joined us. Marcus Walthour is the President of the Guardians. Thank you. Thank you for what you do. And also, a number of individuals who are the Troy Police Chief is here – Daniel DeWolf, Eric Clifford, the Schenectady Police Chief, and all the members of the Executive Team. Since last year of October, this institution, this organization has been led by a strong leader, a state police officer, through and through. I want to thank Acting Superintendent, Dominick Chiumento for all he has done, and I want to give him a round of applause for stepping in a time when there's a lot of uncertainty and a void to fill. And I immediately became to rely on him for his judgment and the crises that he had to deal with. Saw him at many, many events, whether it's the snowstorms or trying to deal with a young person kidnapped, not far from here. All the issues that had to come up that are always unexpected. But I knew that I had an individual who's experienced, who is committed to this organization. I want everyone to give round of applause to our Acting Superintendent for more than 30 years in the State Police, please stand up and take a bow.

Thank you. Now we– and the State Police Mission has changed so much. It's changed so much. We're trying to be more inclusive, bring in more female troopers. I thank you for your leadership in this – well diversify our ranks so, our forces represent the entirety of the State, but also to go into fighting crimes more intentionally than we've ever had before – hate crimes, for example, that you are the vanguard. You are the ones who are the first responders when someone complains that there's been something that happened to them personally or an institution, a religious institution, that we have to protect and we also have worked on something so intensely together, and that is fighting the scourge of gun violence and facing down more criminals than ever before, coming up to that iron pipeline all the way from the I-95 corridor. We talked about this my first days in office when we saw the explosion of gun violence in our streets. We have more criminal networks connected by the internet more than ever before, and the threats are more complex.

So, it's truly critical that we have leaders who are experienced and ready to meet these challenges, and I found that individual and I'm so proud today to name the new Superintendent of New York State Police, Steven James, please stand up. Thank you. A lifelong New Yorker, a member of law enforcement. There's very few who have the experience that Stephen brings to this, started as a Trooper back in 1987. There are people in this room who are not even born back in ‘87. I'm really proud of the fact that he stayed with us his entire career, dedicated.

He was still a student at SUNY Albany when he joined the force, Undercover Narcotics Officer, Investigator, rising up to lead Troop G and eventually becoming a Deputy Superintendent. And I can count on just a few hands and the people who are in this room who have that depth of experience and knowledge of the State Police. So, he knows what it takes to succeed. He knows how to motivate people. He knows how to get the very best out of his teammates. His priority is exactly the same as mine – that is doing everything we can in our power to keep New Yorkers safe. And we focus on my priorities that no better place to look than our budget, when I put my money where my mouth is.

And I've done this intentionally for my third Budget, to say that we need more support for law enforcement in this organization and throughout the State because that is the foundation for keeping New Yorkers safe and free from crime.

So, I introduced my budget just a couple weeks ago. It gives the State Police more resources than ever before to get the job done, and we've already seen such incredible results. When I took office back in 2021, we're still in the throes of COVID. We hadn't even heard of Omicron yet, and we're dealing with the destabilizing effect of the pandemic. Part of it was people weren't getting mental health care they needed. They were left floundering on their own. They felt a strain of economic insecurity. Many turned to violence and crime and numbers we've never seen before, and the numbers were sky high. People literally woke up afraid, not sure they could venture out in their communities. I knew this had to change right away. I knew where I could go – my built-in police force because I knew I had people that were committed to the mission.

And so, we had so many challenges. People were afraid of gunshots. People were afraid that they'd go out to their vehicle. Their catalytic converter was ripped out and sold at a chop shop. So, we pursued a multi-faceted approach. I empowered the State Police to do what they do best to find meaningful, impactful solutions. I rely on that. I don't sit in the Capitol and come up with ways that you should do your jobs. I rely on you from the experience that you bring to us, and your leaders bring to us. One thing I need to do is increase the funding because we could not expect you to do more with less resources. And so, I said “Yes, we must meet that need and expand your role in crime fighting with the money and resources you need to have.”

So, because we've been on so many taskforces, we're able to help catch a long future, long time fugitive on Long Island, the Gilgo Beach murderer and serial murderer. And that brought peace and comfort to thousands of people who live in the community and comfort to families who are seeking justice.

Charlotte Sena, little girl, kidnapped not far from here. We were so focused on this, and when I got the State Police involved and brought them up there in ranks beyond what was already on the ground, people doing their best, but we needed to bring in reinforcements. The tide turned, we could use our crime intelligence centers and work with the FBI and put together the pieces and reunite that family within 48 hours. It was extraordinary. It was extraordinary. I called them to see how she's doing, not that long ago. These are the people we're fighting for. And you know this, you know this.

And the counter-terrorism teams that are operating all across our State – social media. Many of you are in the academy. I don't know if you had to learn about how social media could foster such hatred and inspire people and radicalize people to do things that they never would've known how to do or been inspired to do. And I think about how we can use our technologies right here. I want to make sure that we have more resources than the bad guys do.

And how we responded after the shooting in Buffalo in May of 2022. I went right back to the State Police. I said, “Never again. We have to be on top of this.” That young man, 18 years old, learned how to do everything he did on social media. He posted some signs and I said, “We're going to go back and we're going to beef up our operations here and make sure you have the resources and the bodies to do this monitoring.” I feel really good about where we've come in that time. You delivered the results I asked for, and I'm extraordinarily proud of that.

And again, I mentioned the anti-gun unit. We, we teamed up with not just local law enforcement across the State. We have other States that are part of this consortium. I've been to the meetings many times and they come in from Maryland and Maine and Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and all of our neighbors. And they're working together with us because when one state police officer sees something and knows something, that knowledge should not stop at the border because we're still tracking the same criminals. Long time overdue. It's happening and we're having a real effect. And so, I want to thank everyone who's been involved in that.

Coordinating with our local prosecutors as well. This strategic approach is working. You know, when you think about the number of illegal guns we've seized, it's up 160 percent since we started this concerted effort. Make sure all your members know that. Let them know the statistics that I read every single week. Their work is making a difference and I'm really, really proud of that.

The extreme risk orders of protection. Again, another change we made in the aftermath of that shooting in Buffalo. I knew we had the capability, but people weren't always sure how it should work. We went from 95 incidences where we were able to get the guns out of people who telegraphed already, either on social media or to a friend or in a school workplace, that they're willing to do harm to themselves or another individual –95 in 2021, 1,300 just this past year. That's up over 1,200 percent. That's just what the State Police did statewide because we said we want everyone to understand this power they have. We have over 14,000 cases. I'm grateful for that. That doesn't happen on its own. And it happens because men and women understand that the power they have to protect society and that's what you do every single day. We've had over 1600 guns removed and outside of New York City, we have 25 up from nine crime stabilization units embedded all over the State.

I've been to Rochester. I've convened meetings with our local state police, our local police officers, our district attorney, chief of police, the sheriff. I sit down with everybody and say, what do you need from us? Well, can you be on this? Can we have more boots on the ground? Can you get license plates readers to us? Can you help us with drone technology? I said, “Yes, yes, yes. We'll do it all.” And crime is starting to go down. We're seeing real results. And murders are down 36 percent. I'm sorry, shootings down 36 percent, murders down 30 percent outside the city. We're back to the pre-pandemic lows of 2017 when no one even talked about there being a crime problem. If you ask people their top issues back in 2017, I'm not sure crime was in the top three, four, five.

We're back to those numbers when it comes to the most egregious of crimes, murders and shootings. And among the populous States in our nation, over 10 million people, we have the lowest homicide rate – the lowest homicide rate. So this perception that it's the wild west here and things are out of control, it's not that way because of all of you and this organization; the coordination with local law enforcement. We also have the fourth lowest firearm mortality rate in the entire nation.

So I shared this with you, you may or may not know this, but I want your members to know this. I want them to wake up every day and know they're making a difference. I want that inspiration to be out there and know that they have a Governor who sees it and a State that sees it, but it would not be happening without people who truly believe in this.

Even something like car thefts. Why are crimes going up when you add up to total number of crimes? People are stealing cars. And we realized there was a TikTok challenge – I'm sure you're all on TikTok every day, right? No, me neither – TikTok challenge where kids were inspired to steal as many cars as they could, but particularly the Hyundai's and the Kia's because there was a glitch in the older vehicles where it took nothing to start the ignition. I saw how it happened.

I went to an impoundment lot in Rochester and said, “Show me how this is done,” and it was so simple. So we had a strategy work with our State Police, work with our partners, and as a result of our intentional efforts, a strategy just launched in September, the car thefts have dropped 50 percent in Rochester, 45 percent in Buffalo, and they were the two hot spots in the nation. So we're making a difference, but we can't grow complacent.

It's about continuing to bring people together, share our knowledge, use our crime analysis centers, which are now all over the State; use that to connect the dots, because I'd always rather be in the business of preventing crimes than solving. But we do have to solve them when they do occur.

And I'll tell you, I'll always make sure you have the resources you need. That is my commitment, Acting Superintendent, I will commit that. You tell us what you need. You tell us what you need to be successful. Those who say, “Defund the police,” I say, fund them to the extent that they need to do their jobs and will be as safer and a grateful society as a result.

And we've increased the operational budget by 22 percent. From under $900 million to over $1.1 million in this Budget. That's real money. That's real money to support you. Continuing our cybercrime investigations as well. But also you need more people. I saw this. I'm asking people to do so much more – interdict the guns at the border, people coming in from gun shows up route 81 from Pennsylvania, get them, but also see what's happening on social media. Go investigate this hate crime. And by the way, can you be on the streets of Rochester and help them patrol? I've asked this organization to do so much more than ever before, and I won't ask that without giving you the bodies you need.

So we've increased our headcount from 5,700 in 2022 proposing 6,500, a 13 percent increase. But also we had a – “I said, why aren't we getting more people through? What's taking so long? I'm so impatient.” Well, we have two Academies here. I know this because I spoke at every single graduation since I was Lieutenant Governor.

I love the graduations. I love looking in the ideas, the eyes of these young people and saying, “Yes, you've made the right decision. You worked hard.” The separation with the academy for six months from your family, I used to hear the stories. Dwayne is here, I always to talk to him about my detail and say, “Well, what is it like? How did it feel?” And they said you leave on a Friday night to go home and see your family, it felt like Christmas and it felt like you're going back to school on a Sunday night. And you kind of didn't excited about it, but that's just human nature. But it creates a bond among people. And I've seen that it's powerful.

I said, two academies a year, we're not going to have enough people. We doubled it to four. I was told we wouldn't have the space. I said, “Find the space.” It's a big place. It's a big State. Use the State [Capitol], whatever you need, make it happen. So in two years we've made these investments. We're going to continue making investments, and we're going to continue these record levels of funding.

I will do anything I can to make sure you're successful. And the latest crime that people are talking about is retail theft. People are coming in organized crime units or getting people on the ground to sweep the shelves, leave in a stolen vehicle, right, and then sell it on the internet. We can shut that down. I know we can.

So I said I've – multi-faceted approach, let's start with $25 million for State Police to get the bodies you need, the training you need, go out there and share these best practices with all these communities that are under siege right now. That's how we stabilize our communities.

Because right now it feels like things are of control, at least in some of them. So these are what we can do for the people of New York. And I know that I've selected a leader who sees this, who sees the possibilities of how we can work together and be creative and say, “Yes, there is an answer to this. We don't have to say, ‘this is how it's always going to be.’”

Because if we did that, crime rate would keep going up right now instead of coming down in almost every category the way it is. It's an intentional decision to change, to change outcomes and have the coordination and the cooperation and the resources.

And I know that Steven James understands this. I know he's the person, the person of the hour right now to lead at this time. And I'm a tough boss. I'm going tell you right now because I'm going to be saying how are we doing with our numbers? What do the numbers look like on crime now? What are we looking at for retail theft?

I'll give you a couple of days, okay? I promise. I'll give you a couple of days, but I'm very impatient because people's lives are on the line. Public safety's on the line. That sense of security that every single New Yorker is entitled to is on the line, and we will answer that call. We will rise to that occasion because we always have. Because my friends, this is the great State of New York and I'm really proud, confident that you'll lead with the integrity, make sure the culture fits my values, our values and make sure we have the accountability to safeguard the people of this State.

So ladies and gentlemen, please join me once again and congratulating our new Acting Superintendent Steven James and bring him up for his remarks.