NY Cop Seeks Protection After Arrested Protester Harasses Family

Louis Civello, a Suffolk County police officer and president of the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association, described an earlier incident Tuesday in which a protester he had arrested located his home and waited outside.

“We are at an inflection point. This job is harder than ever before,” Civello said at a New York State Public Safety Alliance event calling for stronger legal protections for law enforcement officers and other local officials.

Civello said the incident began in early 2026, when he arrested a protester who had gone to his office and was charged with trespassing.

“Well, that wasn’t enough for this individual,” Civello said.

“He then decided he was going to find my address, came to my home with a billboard truck. That’s how much money these people are making. They can buy billboard trucks,” Civello continued.

“Now, there’s only one reason to come to my house, right? I’m a public figure. Everyone knows where my building is in Suffolk County. There are seven police precincts in Suffolk County that you can protest in front of if you so choose. You only come to my home to terrorize my family, to get at me via my wife and my children,” Civello said.

Civello said the harassment directed at his family was not an isolated episode. Instead, he described it as part of a broader pattern faced by officers and their relatives.

He cited the incident as evidence that New York needs tougher privacy protections for police officers, particularly laws addressing the publication of their personal information and harassment at their homes.

“The laws are woefully inadequate, and they’re gonna get worse if we don’t work to fix them,” he said.

“Right now, no law against it. No law against coming to my house. So if you are a rapist, and I as a police officer arrest you, you can sit at the edge of my driveway and greet my wife as she comes home. No law against it. No law is publishing my address. If you want to look me up, look any police officer up, look any of us up, it’s a few clicks of a mouse,” he continued.

Civello urged New York to adopt an anti-doxxing law and questioned why the state does not have a “Halo Law,” the popular name for a recently enacted Florida statute that protects first responders from harassment after they issue someone a warning.

“Why don’t have an anti-doxxing law? Why don’t we have laws that make sense?” Civello asked.

Civello was among several law enforcement representatives at the event demanding stronger protections.

“All we’re asking for is fifteen foot,” said Scott Munro, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association. “Fifteen foot, that’s all we’re asking for, for safety reasons.”

Munro also pointed to the broad membership of the New York State Public Safety Alliance, which has organized around protecting public employees from civilian violence. The coalition includes 99 unions representing firefighters, traffic agents, sanitation enforcement agents, environmental police, bus drivers and other workers.

“You’re gonna say ‘why MTA?’” Munro said. “It’s because they’re assaulted every day, they’re in their faces every day,” he continued.

“Those people get assaulted every day. Assaults are up, almost 2,500 assaults this year alone on police officers, felony assaults, and public servants in New York City. That’s what’s going on,” Munro said.

News Media contacted the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association and the Detectives’ Endowment Association, which runs the New York State Public Safety Alliance, for further comment.