Recently, Floral Park’s Village Hall was packed with local residents as well as members of the village’s police department for the swearing-in ceremony of one new police officer and the promotion of three other officers by Mayor Dominick Longobardi and the board of trustees.
“We really do have the greatest police force anywhere in the nation and that goes to how wonderful our community is,” said Longobardi at the top of the evening. “So I thank all of our police officers for everything that they do day-in and day-out.”
Due to the recent retirement of six members of the Floral Park Police Department, which included the retirement of two lieutenants, the village board interviewed candidates for the vacant positions over the past month. First to be sworn-in was Officer Anthony Siragusa, who was previously with the New York City Police Department since 2016.
Following Siragusa’s swearing-in, was Officer Michael Vigorito’s turn to be sworn-in as a sergeant within the village’s police department.
“Mike’s been with us for quite a number of years,” said Longobardi. “It’s been a fantastic time. Mike has proven himself to be a phenomenal police officer and we all know very well that he’s going to make an even better sergeant.”
Vigorito has eight years of service with the village with prior service with the New York City Police Department and just recently completed sergeants’ school through the Nassau County Police Academy.
Lastly, Officer Tom McCarthy, who has 29 years of service, and Sergeant Will Doherty, who has 18 years of service, were promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
“The next two gentlemen who are coming up here, who I’m going to bring up together, I’ve had the great privilege of knowing,” said Longobardi. “You want to talk about dedication to our police department, dedication to this community and giving up everything they could possibly give, it’s these two gentlemen right here.”
Both McCarthy and Doherty will be working closely with the village’s police commissioner to run the department.
Surrounded by their families after each officer was hired or promoted, the room broke out in thunderous applause and cheers.
“We are beyond lucky as I said before,” said Longobardi. “This community is safe, we are rated number two in the State of New York and somewhere in the top 10 in the country because it’s what they [police officers] do every single day. We thank them for that and we look forward to having a wonderful future with the new leadership that we will have coming forward in this police department.”
Longobardi concluded the evening with thanking all of the village’s police officers for a job well done.
“To each and every one of you, thank you so much,” said Longobardi. “We can’t thank you enough for being there for us and for answering that call. Many of you volunteer in our community in other things. As I look around the room, many of our policemen are our firemen. Think about all the time they give back to the community.”
