January 4, 2007

Suozzi Welcomes 99 Nassau County Police Recruits

Mineola, N.Y. - Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi and Nassau County Police Commissioner James Lawrence welcomed the class of 99 police recruits, the first class to train at the new Police Academy in Massapequa Park.

Commissioner Lawrence swore in the recruits at a ceremony yesterday at Nassau County Police Headquarters in Mineola. In addition to the 99 county recruits, an additional 17 recruits were sworn in on behalf of the village police departments throughout Nassau County.

Since Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi took office in 2002, the Police Department has hired 568 new police officers, more than in all of the previous eight-and-a-half years combined, and the detective ranks have increased by 20 positions, to 425. With this new class of recruits, Nassau County’s police force is more than 2,700-strong.

“The authorization of these 99 recruits continues our commitment to keeping Nassau County the safest municipality of its size in the nation,” Suozzi said. “And we can be confident that we are giving these new recruits the best training possible, in our new state-of-the-art Police Academy.”

The new academy will provide 2½ times the square footage of the current academy, and provides a new state-of-the-art intelligence center that will improve the department’s readiness for emergency response and homeland security. Training will take approximately six months and the new recruits are expected to graduate in June.