Staffing

 Desk Officer:

     The Lieutenants will normally serve as the Desk Officer on their respective tours. In the absence of a Lieutenant, a Sergeant shall at such times as necessary assume the responsibilities of Desk Officer as well as Patrol Supervisor.  The Desk Officer shall be responsible for the overall direction of operations during the respective tour.

Patrol Division:

     Members assigned to the Patrol Division provide complete coverage of the 5.3 square miles of the Village.   The Patrol Division is composed of our first-line officers who are fully trained to respond to both emergency and non-emergency calls for service.  The Village is divided into five sectors, providing around-the-clock police protection.  Each year, the Patrol Division continues to maintain a emergency response time of two minutes.  Each patrol vehicle is equipped with first aid equipment including an AED Unit (Automated External Defibrillator), which aids the responding officer in dealing with health related issues.  On average, the Department responds to over 2,500 calls for medical related issues. 

     The Department's approach to traffic safety is threefold - strict enforcement, education and prevention.  Since 2001, the Department has annually received AAA's Platinum Traffic Safety Award, its highest honor.   Traffic safety enforcement includes routine traffic law enforcement, seat belt checkpoints, parking enforcement and the STOP D.W.I. Program.

Tactical Division:

     The Department has a Tactical Division consist of eight officers that provide superior traffic enforcement throughout the Village. During 2010, the Police Department issued more than 7,900 traffic citations for various traffic violations.   A significant portion of these tickets were issued by the members of the Tactical Division.  The Department believes that this activity is vital to maintaining safe roadways and deterring criminal activity within the Village. Other important components of the Department's Traffic Safety Program that are not provided to the same extent by other local departments are our Department's Truck Safety, Aggressive Driving and Occupant Restraint Enforcement and Education Programs.

       The Truck Safety Program is instrumental in removing many hazardous trucks from the roads. Some of the violations that pose a danger to the general public include overweight offenses, dangerous load offenses, hazardous material offenses and unsafe equipment violations.  This program has a positive impact of reducing damage to the roadways of Garden City by removing and deterring overweight vehicles from traveling on Village streets. The Truck Safety Program is also important to national security because it allows members of this Department to check the load of the inspected truck. This provides a chance to look for and detect cargos that may pose a danger to society.  During 2010, the Department conducted 33 Truck Inspection Details where 79 trucks were removed from the roads for being unsafe, 53 tickets were issued for unsafe overweight and dimension violations for a total of  1,186 tickets issued. 

     The Department's Aggressive Driving Program and Speed Awareness Programs have also been successful in making the main thoroughfares of Garden City safer.

     The Department's Occupant Restraint Enforcement Program has produced a 95%+ seatbelt/child safety seat usage rate. Annually,  the Department takes part in the Buckle Up New York Seatbelt Campaign. During this enforcement campaign there were numerous drivers have been cited for non-compliance with seat belt and child passenger seat belt laws. Even though some grant money has been received for the Aggressive Driving and Occupant Safety programs, the majority of the enforcement is conducted by officers on regular patrol