B-roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Safer Streets: Governor Hochul Highlights Continued Investments in Northern Border Security and Law Enforcement Technology in the North County

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul updated New Yorkers on the State’s efforts to enhance New York’s Northern Border security and prevent transnational criminal organizations from trafficking guns, drugs and people. During a visit with New York State Police Troop B in Plattsburgh, Governor Hochul highlighted her recent $8 million investment in the FY26 state budget to boost State Police enforcement efforts at the Northern Border, building on previous investments to enhance border security last year.

B-ROLL of the Governor touring the Plattsburgh Troop B Department is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 I want to acknowledge some key players in our fight to keep New Yorkers safe, and that would certainly start at the top with our Superintendent, Steven James. I thank him for his thoughtful leadership and how he's guiding my mission to make sure that we leave no part of our state unprotected, that we bring the resources where we need to, and that's what today's visit is all about.

I also want to thank Captain Peter Arcardi, the Acting Commander for Troop B, which is an extraordinary troop. It's got over 400 people, a vast area of jurisdiction. They work very hard. They've got all the way up to the Canadian border. And I think the work that they've been doing — particularly in the last few years has been nothing short of extraordinary. Administrative Captain Christopher went up as well as Lieutenant Heath Minor of Troop B as well. So these are the partners, but as well as the — as I mentioned — 400 dedicated men and women who comprise this troop. I just had stopped by to see some of our crime fighting tools and it's incredible how fast the technology has changed. And we looked at a mobile license plate reader that can identify people that have been sought by law enforcement from neighboring states, other parts of the state, and it's been very effective and as a crime fighting tool to be able to identify vehicles that may have committed crimes that are being wanted by others and to be able to stop them, pull them over, and bring the perpetrators to justice.

The drone demonstration, you just saw the different sizes — some for indoors, some for infrastructure, some for surveillance, and the equipment that has the heat sensing capabilities helps find people as we have the Canadian border here. There's always individuals crossing that border being lost in the woods, especially when the weather is very dangerous and cold. And so, I thank them for being able to use this technology to really help save lives as well.

A brand new police cruiser, as well as our ATVs. Again, this is rough territory. This is not protecting the streets of a nice suburb that's easy to conduct surveillance and to protect. This is a little more wild up here, and they have to have the equipment necessary to meet the need to respond to any threat.

So we share a border — a 445 mile border with Canada — and as we've seen, there's a lot of ground to cover that makes us vulnerable to drug cartels, human smugglers, as well as gun smugglers. So in speaking to our leadership team here to identify areas where we're making a real difference. But where the challenges remain — I wanted to come here literally, physically, and thank them — but also, like, what else do you need? What are the perpetrators of crimes doing? How are they possibly trying to get ahead of us, and how can we respond accordingly?

So, we have to protect the border, secure our neighboring fields and pastures and small towns and our cities, and make sure that they have the best crime fighting tools that money can buy. That's why in my most recently adopted Budget for 2026, I allocated an additional $8 million to bring to the Northern Border. First time investing this level of money coupled with $3 million we did last year. It's $11 million that we have available for the State Police. What are they doing with this money?

You saw the technology — critically important — made sure they have top of the line technology. But also making sure that we have the manpower, the womanpower to embed and exist with existing law enforcement, the joint terrorism task force. Were you able to add more personnel there? Six new investigators, people that are experts in finding out how we can link the dots together to solve crimes.

So I was just asking them about some of the cases that we've seen — they're quite interesting. We had one case when St. Lawrence County, we used license plate readers to link a vehicle to a major drug trafficker and they confiscated 55 pounds of cocaine that otherwise they would've gotten away with. And that's the main point here.

In March, the State Police investigators used drone technology with infrared lights to track down a dangerous fugitive who actually fired on law enforcement officials in Vermont. That's how dangerous this person was. Also, we've been busting Venezuelan nationals. They had this crime ring and they were going and robbing ATMs all over the state. We also caught a would-be mass shooter as he crossed the border from Canada.

So these are just a few examples of the thousands of cases that this incredible elite unit is involved with every single year. And I also believe my job as the Governor is to support them with record levels of funding. Since I've been Governor for four years, we've invested almost $3 billion in local law enforcement. This is for our county sheriffs, our police departments, our chiefs of committee, chiefs of police and help them do what law enforcement does best. Also, critically important to me is coordination.

When I first became Governor, I wanted to make sure that we were sharing information with neighboring states to break up the iron pipeline of where guns were coming from and drugs were coming from. And this is a model for the rest of the nation. So these are examples of how you keep people safe. I'll also — as an aside — say you don't keep people safe by gutting essential programs that fund law enforcement with federal dollars. And unfortunately, that's exactly what we've seen out of the administration in Washington. And we've lost literally billions of dollars nationwide that should be going to our law enforcement efforts because my number one priority is to keep people safe. And that should be the priority of our other partners in government.

And also you think about the deployment of resources at the federal level, there are plenty of real criminals coming across the border or who are already here. As I mentioned, human traffickers, gun runners, drug dealers, but the efforts to allocate so much resources — so many resources to the raids on our businesses — like you saw in Cato just last Thursday. A company that manufactures nutrition bars — over 70 people that were taken from the workplace including moms, six moms with kids under the age of one. One was breastfeeding her child. This family separation does not make us safer. What we're doing here makes us safer and we're calling on the federal government to understand that the people are counting on us to do what's right, and that means making sure that the money keeps flowing, that the resources are allocated in a way that stops the dangerous, the worst of the worst, the violent criminals, which is what we are all told to be the case. But that is not what's happening here today.

So, as I said, I'm here today to hear directly from our troopers. I'll continue backing them wholeheartedly, whatever they need. That's my priority. And also to thank them from the bottom of my heart for what they do to keep everyone safe. Before I turn it over, I'll turn it over to State Police Superintendent James, and we'll take a couple of questions in a few minutes. Thank you.