The agency’s new tech unit, led by Deputy Commissioner for Technology Mike Harrigan — an ITS employee embedded within NYSP — is being established to support the state police’s “mission-critical public safety systems” and specific technology needs.
While statewide shared services — including those from the Chief Information Security Office, Chief AI Office and Chief Technology Office — will continue to support agencies across New York, the state police’s designated team will focus squarely on NYSP operations.
The team is still in the hiring phase, so its scope will continue to evolve. ITS Chief Communications Officer Scott Reif said that “it’ll be a lot of different things,” shaped through collaboration between Harrigan and NYSP leadership to determine which skills and capabilities are most critical at each stage. But even as the team is still being built, work is already underway on projects for which it will eventually have oversight.
One of the first is the modernization of the NYSP trooper entrance exam application website through ITS. The current application experience — particularly on mobile devices — has become increasingly challenging, according to Harrigan and Reif, as more candidates begin the process on their phones, making usability and accessibility critical to recruitment. The effort spans design, development, systems integration and ongoing support, and is one of the factors driving the decision to create a larger technology team.
The team’s creation also reflects a broader shift in state government toward embedding technology staff more closely with the agencies they support, rather than relying solely on a centralized IT model. As Reif explained, “This hiring is consistent with our CIO’s strategic vision to strengthen the dedicated teams that support each agency.” It aligns, he said, with ITS’ broader responsibility of supporting roughly 57 state agencies and entities, a role that involves balancing competing priorities across a wide range of missions.
To achieve that balance, the new dedicated team structure is designed as a hybrid model — preserving statewide shared services while integrating other agency expertise. “It marries the subject matter experts at those agencies with our technology staff,” Reif said, “in overall support of each other and all New Yorkers.”
