Nassau County Dedicates New Police Training Facility

GARDEN CITY, NY — On Wednesday, Nassau County officially opened and dedicated its new police training center, the David S. Mack Center for Training and Intelligence. Located on the Nassau Community College campus, the new center will be used to train officers from police departments all over Nassau County.

With the completion of the center, the Nassau County Police Department now has its own dedicated space for training officers, something it hasn't had since 1982. Since then, recruits were shuttled to various vacant spaces around the county to conduct training classes. They were most recently using the former Hawthorne elementary school in Massapequa Park.

In addition to training law enforcement officers from many different branches, the 89,000-square-foot David S. Mack Center will be used by local, state and federal agencies for training and investigations. It will also be a community hub for the county, hosting the Police Youth Academy, the Citizens Police Academy, the Police Athletic League, the Nassau County Law Enforcement Explorers and more.

“It’s a proud and historic day for Nassau County. This cutting-edge facility will ensure that we continue to have the best-trained and most effective police force so we can keep Nassau the safest county in America," said Nassau County Executive Laura Curran. "The David S. Mack Center for Training and Intelligence will be a vital resource for the entire law enforcement community, ensuring that our police training, intelligence and counter-terrorism have access to the best technology, tools and high-tech data analytics required in order to proactively address the threats facing our region now and in the future. From my very first day as county executive, I have been pushing to get this academy built — and we got the job done. It wouldn’t have been possible without David Mack, and I want to thank him especially for his support.”

The new facility features:

• a 500-seat auditorium
• fitness center
• emergency vehicle operations course
• physical training and defensive tactics warehouse
• 10 multi-purpose classrooms that can be combined to 5-large 70-person rooms for training
• a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility to process classified information (the only one on Long Island)

"Today’s official opening and dedication of the David S. Mack Center for Training and Intelligence brings Nassau County policing and intelligence to the next generation," said Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder. "On any given day there can be hundreds of recruits and officers receiving important training in cultural diversity, ethical awareness, deescalation and instruction on penal law and criminal procedure law. The Field House will help us continue to promote community relations as many programs will be held in this facility."