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This month marks 100 years of the Nassau County Police Department.
And to celebrate, the department is hosting a huge parade this weekend in Wantagh.
Retired Nassau Det. Michael O’Leary, who’s also been heavily involved in the Nassau County Police Museum, said the parade will start at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 27, on Wantagh and Beltagh avenues, and end on Beech Street and Park Ave.
“It’s going to be huge,” he said.
A block party will then take place at Railroad Ave. — outside of Mulcahy’s — immediately after the parade and run from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The parade will celebrate the department as the 11th largest in the U.S., with more than 3,800 employees, including 2,600 sworn officers.
The NCPD started more than 25 years after the county was formed in 1899, with just 55 officers.
Along with marchers and pipe bands from the New York City and Suffolk County police departments, the parade will also feature motorcycles with sidecars and antique Plymouth and Ford patrol cars.
Every living commissioner and chief of the department was invited to participate, as well as members of village police departments.
Family members of officers who died in the line of duty will also be marching.
“We only do big things here in Nassau County,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said at a press conference last month. “We have invited every police department motorcycle unit in the United States to come to this parade so that we can celebrate together and make it the biggest police motorcycle parade in the history of the United States.”
Among the antique cars, O’Leary said that a 1925 antique Harley Davidson with a sidecar will be making an appearance. The Harley, he said, was used by just 11 of the 55 officers back when the NCPD was just a fledgling department.
The antique vehicles will also be display outside Mulcahy’s for photos.
The parade’s rain date is May 4.
Photo credit: Nassau County Police Department on Facebook
