Police Department
Commissioner James Vafeades
766-1500
The Rockville Centre Police Department proudly serves the Village residents with fifty-eight sworn police members that are supported by nine fulltime and twenty-seven part-time civilians. Records management personnel, dispatchers, neighborhood aides, and school crossing guards make up our nonsworn civilian staff.
Our department prides itself on being one of the most highly trained police departments in the country. Our officers trained more than three thousand hours over the course of the year. Emergency vehicle operation, drug and alcohol recognition, active shooter response, gang awareness, narcotics enforcement, emergency medical care to include CPR and Narcan are just some examples of the training that they undergo. The department qualifies every officer annually on marksmanship on their handguns and patrol rifles and has an extensive tactical firearms training program.
Training is an important aspect to meeting accreditation standards. Accreditation is a progressive and contemporary way of helping police agencies evaluate and improve their overall performance. The Accreditation Program is run by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice and is comprised of a set of standards developed to further enhance the capabilities of an agency. The Rockville Centre Police Department met or exceeded the requirements of one hundred ten different standards and is one of only three agencies that are accredited in Nassau County. We are looking forward to our re-accreditation in January 2023.
Major crime continues to decline, and the Village of Rockville Centre remains one of the safest places to live in New York State. The police department’s traffic enforcement efforts will continue to increase with the utilization of license plate readers throughout the Village. These license plate readers help to identify vehicles with suspended or revoked registrations and wanted or missing persons; additionally, they assist in locating vehicles involved in criminal activity.
In 2022, the RVCPD continued its excellent working Village Services 9 relationship with the Rockville Centre School District. The partnership that exists between the local police and the school district exhibits a cooperation that is uncommon and makes the Village of Rockville Centre and its residents the envy of other Villages and towns on Long Island. The department takes an active role with the Rockville Centre Coalition for Youth and the Youth Council, which assists in the education, awareness, and informational programs that the department offers. Our police officers also conduct random walkthroughs in each school, every day. It is this type of cooperative, working partnership that is enjoyed between our schools and police. The RVCPD looks forward to furthering our relationship with your schools over the next year.
In 2022, our department moved into our new headquarters located at 142 Maple Avenue. We had a ribbon cutting and open house where residents were able to see firsthand the technology and safety measures employed at the new facility. We’re hoping that the rich tradition and history of Rockville Centre and our department will live on in this building for many decades.
The challenges presented to our department by the pandemic stretched our resources to the fullest, but the officers of the department will continue to respond in a safe, professional manner while always keeping the welfare of our residents as their first priority. We have put safety protocols in place when necessary and these protocols have helped keep our officers safe and, in doing so, help to keep our community safe.
It is our goal to keep the safety of our residents and officers in place, and to do whatever we can to make Rockville Centre a better place to live, work, and play in 2023.
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