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‘Police Officers’ Families are not safe in their own homes,’ says Louis Civello
Working the beat on Long Island is dangerous enough, but Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association (PBA) President Louis Civello warns a toxic new trend is following cops right to their doorsteps.
Following the recent arrest of a Deer Park woman who tracked down and targeted the personal cell phone of a local officer’s spouse, Civello is blowing a loud whistle on a “chilling” nationwide reality: criminals are increasingly dragging cops’ families into the crosshairs in a disturbing attempt to derail justice.
Deer Park 31-year-old Beatrix Lacroix was arrested this week and charged with second-degree aggravated harassment after allegedly tracking down and calling the personal cell phone of an officer’s spouse. Authorities said the contact was a deliberate attempt to retaliate against the police officer who had arrested Lacroix months earlier.
Suffolk County authorities said Lacroix’s original arrest stemmed from an October 23 car wreck, where she allegedly fled from police in a motor vehicle and ultimately piled up 12 charges, including reckless driving, speeding, and driving with an improper license.
Lacroix pleaded not guilty to those original offenses, and the case is still moving through the court. She also pleaded not guilty this week to the harassment charge.
“This really underscores the problem we’re having not only across the county and state, but really across the nation — where police officers families are not safe in their own homes,” Civello told Greater Long Island.
“This was a clear attempt to intimidate the police officer by targeting the family, targeting the spouse, targeting ultimately the people who live in the home. I can tell you that the officer’s spouse was completely distraught over this,” he added.
Digital ‘revolving door’
Civello said the ease with which private date can be weaponized represents a total failure by the state legislature to protect police officers. For just a few dollars, online data brokers hand over detailed family trees, mapping out spouses, children, and extended family, he said.
When officers attempt to scrub their information from these platforms, they face a near-impossible, bureaucratic nightmare.
‘These people who pedal this information, they will make you jump through about a thousand hoops before they will remove your information,’ Civello explained. ‘And when they do remove it, there will be a disclaimer. … even if you want to take the hours, days and weeks it would take to get to every one of these sites and request that your information be removed, they’re outright telling you this is only temporary and we’re going to put it right back next month. So it’s a giant revolving door.’
The lack of legal guardrails leaves families entirely exposed, Civello said. He noted that the targeting often takes deeply psychological forms — such as an officer receiving a Christmas card at his family home from a criminal he had personally handcuffed.
Because sending a holiday card isn’t explicitly illegal, current state laws leave the hands of law enforcement tied, he said.
Monetizing harassment: The rise of ‘auditors’
The problem is being actively fueled by social media clout-chasers, Civello warns. Self-proclaimed online “auditors” and influencers are turning the harassment of police officers into a lucrative side-hustle.
“They literally get paid for antagonizing and harassing police officers via YouTube, and some of these other soulless companies,” Civello said.
These individuals, Civello said, routinely provoke officers in public to clip viral videos for “likes and clicks,” often getting directly into an officer’s physical space and threatening to show up at their private residences.
“If they’re not going to do the violence themselves, they certainly know they are inviting other people to do the violence for them,” Civello said.
Push for legislative reform
Civello, who also heads the national organization UCOPS, says a major coalition is engaging a “full court press” to force protective laws through both Albany and Washington, D.C.
Lawmakers are currently being pressured to back two distinct legal frameworks to halt the harassment:
- Anti-Doxing Laws: Legislation that completely outlaws data brokers from selling law enforcement’s private records, while making it a crime to post an officer’s personal information with the intent to threaten or intimidate.
- The “Halo” Law: A statute designed to give officers physical breathing room while subduing suspects or responding to emergencies. While maintaining a citizen’s First Amendment right to film, a Halo Law would legally mandate that individuals step back when ordered by an officer for safety reasons.
“Threatening to go to a police officer’s home with the intention to intimidate, harass should be a crime that needs to be written into the statute,” Civello insisted. “The sentence should be harsh enough that it’s not only a deterrent to this individual, but that it’s a deterrent to any individual that would consider targeting a police officer’s family.”
As the Suffolk County District Attorney moves forward with prosecuting the Deer Park perpetrator, Civello emphasizes that the psychological toll on law enforcement remains a constant tax on the job.
Officers are forced to head out onto their shifts and effectively de-escalate crisis situations, all while carrying the heavy, agonizing worry that their spouses and children are left entirely vulnerable at home.
“You raised your hand and took an oath and wearing a badge,” Civello said. “Your spouse shouldn’t be a victim.”
Top: Suffolk PBA President Lou Civello
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