What Happened
Russell Clough, 48, of Huntington Station was arrested at 5:12 p.m. on Friday, August 14, 2026, at his home on Old Country Road after Suffolk County Police detectives linked him to the vandalism of a Flock license-plate-reader camera in Hauppauge.
The sequence began July 23, when a 911 caller reported that one of the department’s Flock cameras appeared to have been spray-painted. Fourth Precinct officers responded and documented the damage. The case then moved to the Property Auto Crime Section, which spent the following three weeks building the case before identifying Clough as the suspect.
Detectives arrested Clough at his Old Country Road residence rather than at the scene of the original incident. He was charged with Criminal Mischief 3rd Degree. Suffolk County Police issued him a Desk Appearance Ticket, meaning he was not held pending arraignment and must appear in court on a date not yet publicly announced, per the Suffolk County Police Department press release.
Police have not stated a motive or disclosed the repair or replacement cost of the damaged camera.
Location & Road Context
The vandalized camera was in Hauppauge, a commercial and light-industrial hamlet in the Town of Smithtown in central Suffolk County. Clough’s home is on Old Country Road in Huntington Station, roughly five miles southwest of Hauppauge.
Suffolk County has expanded its Flock camera network across multiple precincts as part of broader license-plate-reader deployment for vehicle crime investigations. The Fourth Precinct, which covers Hauppauge, handles a high volume of vehicle-related calls; Long Island Traffic’s local incident database contains 766 recorded accidents in Suffolk County. A crash on NY 27 and a crash on I-495 were also logged in Suffolk on August 14.
Investigation & Legal Proceedings
The Property Auto Crime Section, a specialized Suffolk County Police unit that investigates vehicle theft and related property crimes, led the investigation from the July 23 complaint through Clough’s arrest. Per the Suffolk County Police Department, detectives did not disclose what evidence tied Clough to the spray-painting.
Criminal Mischief 3rd Degree is a Class E felony under New York Penal Law § 145.05 when the damage to property exceeds $250. Clough’s Desk Appearance Ticket sets a future court date; no arraignment date has been publicly confirmed.
Broader Impact
Flock cameras feed license-plate data to law enforcement in real time and are a direct investigative tool for vehicle crime cases, the category the Property Auto Crime Section handles. Disabling or obscuring one interrupts that data stream for every vehicle that passes the unit until it is repaired or replaced. Suffolk County Police did not say how long the Hauppauge camera was out of service between July 23 and the arrest.