23 October 2021: State Trooper Heading Governor's Protective Detail Replaced

State Police shake up governor's security detail in wake of Cuomo

This report was published on 22 October 2021.

The State Police this week shook up the leadership of a special unit that's assigned to protect the governor's office but had been pulled into the controversies that engulfed former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who was found to have directed the appointment of a young female trooper to the unit who later became a victim of his alleged sexual harassment.

State Police declined earlier this week to provide an update on any leadership or structural changes within the Protective Services Unit, but on Thursday they issued an internal teletype bulletin to members saying that Maj. Douglas Larkin, who oversees the agency's New York City troop, would take over the embattled unit.

“Superintendent Bruen directed a thorough internal review of all aspects of the PSU, which resulted in recommendations to professionalize the unit, including changes to leadership and procedures," said Beau Duffy, a State Police spokesman.

Dave Dively, a technical lieutenant who had been overseeing the detail for 11 months, is being transferred to a position at the New York State Intelligence Center and will be tasked with monitoring issues related to the governor, sources briefed on the matter said. Dively, who had been on the governor's detail for about 11 years, is a "technical" lieutenant because he did not take the competitive exams required for promotion to the position. State Police sources said Cuomo's office had occasionally requested promotions for State Police members who then took command positions in the unit.

If it's not clear from the excerpt above, Dave Dively is the state trooper who is being replaced by Douglas Larkin. Dively was implicated in the state attorney general's report findings of Andrew M. Cuomo's sexual harassment of a female state trooper who Cuomo pulled strings to have assigned to his protective detail.

That he was involved in the misconduct is affirmed by spokesman Beau Duffy's comment regarding "changes to leadership and procedures". In this case, that means ending the practices in which Andrew M. Cuomo engaged as he surrounded himself by loyalists who would look the other way at the incidents involving managerial and sexual-harassment-related misconduct that ultimately forced Cuomo to resign in disgrace to avoid impeachment.