NYPD officers rally at City Hall for protection against doxxing and harassment on the job
NYPD officers gathered outside New York City Hall to press lawmakers to approve anti-doxxing protections aimed at shielding police from threats, harassment and the public release of their personal information. Scott Munro, president of the NYPD Detectives’ Endowment Association, said exposed home addresses put officers and their families at risk. He said the proposal would be modeled on Florida’s “Halo” law and establish a 15-foot safety buffer.
Louis Civello, a Suffolk County police officer and president of the county’s Police Benevolent Association, described Tuesday how a protester he had previously arrested tracked him down and waited outside his home.
“We are at an inflection point. This job is harder than ever before,” Civello said at a New York State Public Safety Alliance event focused on stronger legal protections for law enforcement officers and other public employees.
Civello said the incident began in early 2026, when he arrested a protester who had appeared at 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 said.
Louis Civello, president of the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association, speaks during a New York State Public Safety Alliance event on Oct. 20, 2026. (WNYW)
Civello said there was little reason for the protester to appear at his residence other than to intimidate his family. “I’m a public figure. Everyone knows where my building is in Suffolk County,” he said, noting that protesters could instead demonstrate outside any of the county’s seven police precincts. “You only come to my home to terrorize my family, to get at me via my wife and my children.”
He said the harassment directed at his family was not an isolated episode, but part of a broader pattern faced by officers and their relatives.
Civello pointed to the incident as evidence that New York needs stronger privacy protections for police officers, particularly laws addressing the publication and use of their personal information.
A Suffolk County, New York police vehicle sits at the scene of an investigation in Medford, N.Y., on Dec. 28, 2022. (Newsday via Getty Images)
“The laws are woefully inadequate, and they’re gonna get worse if we don’t work to fix them,” Civello said.
He argued that New York currently has no law barring someone from waiting outside an officer’s home or publishing the officer’s address. “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,” Civello said. He added that finding an officer’s address online can take only “a few clicks of a mouse.”
Civello called for an anti-doxxing statute and questioned why New York has not adopted a version of Florida’s “Halo Law,” the name commonly used for a recently enacted measure intended to protect first responders from harassment after they issue a warning.
“Why don’t we have an anti-doxxing law? Why don’t we have laws that make sense?” Civello asked.
Other law enforcement leaders at the event also urged lawmakers to strengthen protections for public employees.
“All we’re asking for is fifteen foot,” Munro said. “Fifteen foot, that’s all we’re asking for, for safety reasons.”
Munro also emphasized that the New York State Public Safety Alliance represents a broad coalition of workers seeking protection from violence and harassment. The alliance includes 99 unions representing firefighters, traffic agents, sanitation enforcement agents, environmental police officers, bus drivers and others.
Scott Munro, the president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, speaks during a New York Public Safety Alliance event on Oct. 20, 2026. (WNYW)
“You’re gonna say, ‘Why MTA?’” Munro said. “It’s because they’re assaulted every day, they’re in their faces every day.”
“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 Outlet contacted the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association and the Detectives’ Endowment Association, which runs the New York State Public Safety Alliance, for further comment.
