Suffolk County mourns death of Lt. Richard Grice, tributes pour in

Suffolk County law enforcement is mourning Lt. Richard Grice, an active member of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Professional Development Section whose death prompted condolences from the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, county officials and colleagues across Long Island.

The sheriff’s office, led by Errol D. Toulon, Jr., extended sympathy to Grice’s family and to the police department as word of his passing spread through the county’s public safety community. The Suffolk County Superior Officers Association also confirmed Grice’s death and said memorial-service details would be released once they were finalized.

Grice served in the department’s Professional Development Section, a role that placed him inside one of the police department’s most important internal units for training and advancement. His death drew an outpouring of grief from fellow officers, the Superior Officers Association and members of the wider law enforcement community, with social-media tributes reflecting the respect he had earned over the course of his career.

Project Patriot 22 also publicly announced Grice’s death and urged anyone struggling with suicidal thoughts or other mental health issues to seek help. The message added another layer to the response around his passing, as colleagues and community members focused not only on his service but on the toll such losses can carry within police ranks and beyond.

Grice’s death came as Suffolk County police have been looking back on the department’s long record of sacrifice. At an annual remembrance ceremony on May 8 outside police headquarters in Yaphank, Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina and other officials honored officers killed in the line of duty and read their names aloud at the memorial garden. County police remembered 29 officers who have died in the line of duty since 1960.

That ceremony, held at headquarters in Yaphank, underscored how the department frames its history of loss: not as a matter of statistics alone, but as a continuing obligation to the families, coworkers and survivors left behind. Catalina said the department wants survivors to know that it never forgets the sacrifice of fallen officers.

For Suffolk County police, Grice’s passing now joins that solemn tradition. The grief expressed by the sheriff’s office, the Superior Officers Association and fellow officers points to a career that left its mark inside the department and across the county law-enforcement community.