Suffolk Dep. Police Commissioner Earns MLK Jr. Meritorious Award

HAUPPAUGE, NY — Suffolk County Deputy Police Commissioner Risco Mention-Lewis was honored this week with the Martin Luther King Jr. Meritorious Award. It was presented by the First Baptist Church of Riverhead at its 35th Annual MLK Memorial Breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Hauppauge.

The deputy commissioner was honored for her work as the founder of the Council of Thought and Action (COTA), a movement that works with ex-offenders to transform their attitudes and lives, which results in less recidivism and more hope.

"My current position is the most important and difficult thing I have done," said Mention-Lewis in her acceptance speech. "I do this, never forgetting to seek to do God’s will. I do this to bring your voices into the rooms where I represent the first generation out of American Apartheid who have been allowed to enter these rooms. We know we are in a difficult part of this great journey to justice, equality and freedom. But we are guided by the work and words of Dr. Martin Luther King and others. We must get new tools to ensure that America fulfills the promise of its founders that all of its people are created equal and have the right to live where we choose. Yes, on Long Island, the right to a criminal justice system that reduces crime and incarceration and the right to raise our children without racial fear."

Mention-Lewis was one of five awardees at this year’s breakfast. Other honorees included community activist Ruby D. Barrow, Executive Director/CEO of SCOPE Educational Services George L. Duffy, James Ratliff, former college professor and CPA, Family Community Life Center board member and retired board member of the American Baptist Churches of Metropolitan New York and USA, and President and CEO of Teds Services Marcial Gallimore.

Pastor Charles A. Coverdale of the First Baptist Church of Riverhead led the ceremony. The Reverend also serves as the committee chairperson of the Memorial Breakfast Committee, along with members Reverend Cynthia A. Liggon, Shirley E. Coverdale, Anita D. Obie, and Rosa E. Palmore.

The keynote speaker of the event was Reverend Dr. Obery Hendricks, Jr., a lifelong social activist and one of the foremost commentators on the intersection of religion and political economy in America. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Choir also performed, under the direction of Palmore.

Mention-Lewis, a Wheatley Heights resident, was appointed deputy commissioner in July 2012. She has served as a Nassau County assistant district attorney for 19 years and has received numerous awards and accolades for her work first as a prosecutor and most recently for her innovative programs to reduce crime by breaking the cycle of recidivism. In 2015, she was invited to the White House to discuss her work of reducing crime and incarceration. Mention-Lewis is the first woman and first African American to hold the deputy commissioner position in the history of the Suffolk County Police Department.