Summer Months Busy for New Hyde Park Auxiliary Police

The summer months have been particularly busy for the New Hyde Park Auxiliary Police department according to officer John Concannon, who made the quarterly report from the department during the Aug. 20 meeting of the village board at the village hall.

The department purchased a new 2000 Ford Explorer vehicle, which was paid for with the department’s own funds, giving them a total of three marked vehicles.

The department’s newest member Patrick Wallace, who is awaiting the next NCPD Auxiliary Basic Training Course scheduled for the fall, already has 30 hours of service in July.

Concannon also thanked Nassau Legis. RIchard Nicolello, R-New Hyde Park, for securing grant funding for three additional portable radios for members to carry and utilize while on duty, bringing the total to six.

“Now all of our members when they go out on patrol will have the security and safety of having a portable radio with them which is tuned into Nassau County and our own communication center,” Concannon said.

The auxiliary police were also present at the 2013 Long Island Marathon, the Memorial Day parades for the Villages of New Hyde Park and Albertson, the Herricks High School 5K Run, the Town of East Rockaway Annual Frolics, Katie’s Run, Town of Hempstead Veterans’ Fireworks, the Stewart Manor Fourth of July parade, Nassau County Firefighters’ parade, village concerts in the parks and the annual Cellini Lodge Festival at Tully Park.

“We were there two nights, we weren’t there the night that there was a little trouble, but we’re not sorry that we weren’t there,” Concannon said, also thanking village superintendent of public works Tom Gannon for supplying traffic barricades for the side streets during the various local parades.

The auxiliary police is also planning for the New Hyde Park Street Fair on Sept. 21, the annual Ocean to Sound Relay Race on Sept. 29, Diva’s Half-Marathon on Oct. 6 and the Oyster Bay Oysterfest on Oct. 19 and 20.

Concannon said that auxiliary police do patrol the various parks, but that they cannot be around all the time and that residents should still continue to call 911 if they see activity in the park after hours.

Trustee Lawrence Montreuil stated that residents had informed the board that some motorists had been using South Eighth Street and Eighth Avenue as a cut-through to avoid the traffic light at Stewart Avenue and Covert Avenue and asked the auxiliary to observe motor vehicle behavior there in order to help assess if there is a potential problem at the location.

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