1st county police recruits in 5 years

Dan Glaun

Nassau County bolstered its thin blue line Friday afternoon, as the county’s first class of police recruits in five years were sworn in before Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and police department officials.

“I thank you for choosing to be part of the illustrious Nassau County police department and for dedicating your careers to keeping our residents safe,” said Mangano to the silent crowd of recruits, who will be trained in the county’s police academy in Massapequa.

“Some of you have military experience, some of you have prior law enforcement experience but all of you have the innate ability and drive to serve and protect,” Mangano added.

Newly inducted recruit Scott Panzarino, a 25-year-old Valley Stream native who previously served with the Marines and as an New York Police Department officer in Queens, said he was excited for his new post. 

“I’m looking forward to working in the community I grew up in. I’ve lived in Nassau my whole life,” said Panzarino. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”

The assignment is a long time coming for Panzarino, who said he first took the test the join the Nassau force six years ago, shortly before the county’s five-year hiring freeze.

And though he has months of training ahead of him, Panzarino said he was ready for the challenge.

“I’m not nervous. Obviously I’ve been through Marine Corps boot camp and the NYPD academy,” Panzarino said. “I did hear it’s tough, but I’m looking forward to it.”

The 33 recruits sat in rows in the police headquarters’ Donald F. Kane auditorium. Following a benediction from department chaplain Joseph J. D’Angelo, Mangano and Nassau County Police Commissioner Thomas Dale addressed the recruits.

“You walked in as a civilian. You leave, as we say, on the job,” Dale said. “You will become one of the department family.”

Mangano swore in the recruits after his and Dale’s speech, as the new cadets stood at attention.

Though the recruits come from diverse professional backgrounds, including military veterans and the New York Police Department, all will be put through the same training process, said police spokesperson Kenneth Lack.

The recruits will spend more than six months training, including five months in the classroom at the county’s police academy and six weeks in the field working with veteran officers, Lack said.

“They all go through the same course, even if they went to a prior academy,” Lack said.

First Deputy Police Commission Tom Krumpter told attendees of an East Meadow community meeting last month that the department intends on inducting several more academy classes for a total of 150 to 200 new recruits by the end of the year, according to the Long Island Press. That will begin to make up for 500 jobs lost due to attrition during the hiring freeze, according to a statement made by Nassau County Police Benefit Association President James Carver to the Long Island Press.

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