Auxiliary Cops Seek Gains In Stature and Training; Class Graduates Next Spring

The year-old Auxiliary Police Supervisors Benevolent Association is gearing up for the first Auxiliary Police Officer graduation, at the end of March or the beginning of April, since training for such officers became more uniform and regimented after the fatal shooting of two Auxiliaries 20 months ago.

A Class of 800

The Auxiliary Police, which now has a headquarters in Kew Gardens staffed with an NYPD commanding officer, has about 800 men and women in the graduating class that started in September. The ceremony will be held at either Columbia University or Riverside State Park. The training featured classes one day a week for four months. Never before was there an auxiliary graduation because admission into the organization was scattered across the city at the precinct level. There are now plans for two classes a year just like the Police Department.

William Rivera, the founder of the APSBA, recently met with Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly to discuss his organization's needs. "We are the free police," he said. "We don't cost the city a penny, that's our plea." He asked the Commissioner for an assortment of things, including batons and MACE for his officers, which he suggested could be used on a trial basis in a pilot program with Auxiliary supervisors.

Mr. Rivera said the new more-formalized training for auxiliaries should help to improve the career path. "Right now, it looks good on a resume, but it is not really a stepping-stone," he said. "We want it to not just look good on the resume, but put points on the test for Police Officer."

The deaths of Auxiliary Police Officers Nicholas T. Pekearo, 28, and Yevgeniy Marshalik, 19, who were responding to a call following a murder at a Greenwich Village pizzeria in March 2007, spurred Mr. Rivera to form this association, which is separate from the Auxiliary Police Benevolent Association. The deaths of these two officers, he said, were a catalyst for the NYPD to implement a more centralized borough-based approach to training auxiliaries. "We don't want this to happen again," Mr. Rivera said. "We need better tools, better equipment and better training."

At the graduation, the valedictorian of the class will be presented with an award in the name of the two murdered auxiliaries.

Seek Stiffer Assault Penalties

Legislatively, the association plans to continue a push for a felony assault bill for Auxiliary Police because currently those who assault such officers only face a misdemeanor. "We want them to know when you assault an Auxiliary Police Officer, it's a felony," Mr. Rivera said. "We need to be protected like other agencies equally." After years of lobbying, Traffic Enforcement Agents got similar protection last summer.

Also on the agenda of the nascent organization is a Volunteer Peace Officers' Benefit Bill, which would legitimize volunteer officers, such as the NYPD Auxiliaries, by giving them Peace Officer status. This legislation would establish recruiting and training standards as well as provide deserved benefits.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer stepped in after a public outcry to award the Federal Public Safety Officer Benefit to the two Auxiliary Police Officers murdered in Greenwich Village last year because they were not Peace Officers and ineligible for that benefit.

The bill is currently stuck in committee in both houses of the State Legislature.