Suffolk officer gives Alfano students hands-on lesson in community policing
Officer Justin Fernandez let Alfano pre-K students sit in his police car, try the siren and radio, and get a close look at emergency response.
A Suffolk County police officer turned the side of Anthony Alfano Elementary School in Central Islip into a lesson in public safety, letting pre-kindergarten students climb into his patrol car, handle the radio and hear the siren as part of a hands-on visit focused on community policing.
Justin Fernandez, identified by the school as a Suffolk County Police Officer and Countywide School Resource Officer, brought his car alongside the building and let students take turns sitting in both the driver’s and passenger’s seats. He also visited each classroom to explain what police officers do, what vehicles they operate and why students should reach out to police in an emergency.
The visit highlighted the role the Suffolk County Police Department assigns to school resource officers. The department says SROs serve as liaisons between school administration, students and police, with responsibilities that include fostering positive relationships with youth and the community, helping provide a safe learning environment and delivering age-appropriate safety lessons such as 911 awareness and stranger danger.
At Alfano, the outreach came to a school that sits within the Central Islip Union Free School District, which says it serves about 9,000 school-aged students in Central Islip and Islandia in Suffolk County. Carmen Vazquez is the principal at Alfano Elementary, where Fernandez’s stop was presented as part of a broader effort to put a face on local policing for young children before those children ever need to make an emergency call.
Fernandez’s work has not been limited to Central Islip. Earlier this year, he visited second-grade classes at Timber Point Elementary School in East Islip on Jan. 16 and Connetquot Elementary School on Jan. 23 to introduce himself and teach students about safety. Those visits, like the one at Alfano, fit a larger school-outreach strategy that relies on repeated contact, familiar faces and simple safety lessons to build trust between police and children across Suffolk County.
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