Lynbrook High School alum is named Nassau County Police Department commissioner

Patrick Ryder, a 1976 alumnus of St. Raymond’s Parochial School in East Rockaway and a 1980 graduate of Lynbrook High School, has been named Nassau County’s top cop.
County Executive Laura Curran announced on Jan. 24 her decision to appoint Ryder, who grew up in the Lynbrook-East Rockaway area, and had been serving as active commissioner. For the past four years, the post had been filled by an interim commissioner.
“At the end of the day, [Ryder] has emerged as the right person, at the right time,” Curran said last week at a news conference at Nassau County Police Department headquarters in Mineola.
She said Ryder was the most qualified out of a pool of interested candidates across the 2,500-member department. Curran lauded Ryder’s years of experience, the decrease in crime while he served as acting commissioner and his handling of the department’s finances — including his limiting of police overtime — as reasons to promote him.
Ryder was class president at Lynbrook High. He later earned his master’s degree in homeland security and management from Long Island University, and is an adjunct professor of criminal justice and intelligence-led policing at Nassau Community College. He also taught at Dowling College until 2015. Ryder and his wife, Jill, have been married for 28 years and have three children, Liam, Sean and Meghan.

Ryder has more than three decades of experience in law enforcement. He joined the New York Police Department in 1984, working at the 79th Precinct. Two years later, he moved to the Nassau County Police Department, initially working in the 3rd Precinct. He was promoted to sergeant of the department’s Special Operations Bureau in 1995 and then moved to the 5th Precinct. Ryder became deputy commanding officer of asset forfeiture and intelligence in 2000 and the department’s commanding officer in 2008, holding the position until 2016.
According to the NCPD’s website, during his tenure as deputy commanding officer, Ryder implemented many initiatives to help foster department-wide communication. They included a Real Time Intelligence system, which used touch-screen monitors to share community information and the Return Every Child and Adult Home, or R.E.A.C.H. Program, which ensures police have all the necessary information to find a missing person who suffers from disabilities such as autism and other disorders.
Last January, Ryder was named deputy commissioner, and last July, he became acting commissioner.
Ryder explained that his first priority as commissioner would be to form the Commissioner’s Community Council, a police task force that will establish a subdivision in each of the 19 legislative districts.
This, he said, is the best approach to tackling the opioid epidemic, gang activity and crime in a targeted approach for each neighborhood. “We’re going to have greater outreach into our communities than ever before,” he said.
The CCC will comprise three members from each district, who will be nominated by their county legislators. The members will be in contact with local residents in their districts and voice challenges and concerns to Ryder, while also brainstorming ways to help them improve their situations.
“I recognize the importance of community police models, and we can use the CCC to adapt the models to fit needs and concerns of each community,” Ryder said.
To assist in this effort, Ryder appointed Marianela Casas, of Freeport, as assistant commissioner for community engagement. Casas has served as the Long Island representative for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, working closely with community and municipal leaders across Long Island.
Pending the Legislature’s approval, Ryder will make $249,500 in his new role and begin this month.

Mike Smollins contributed to this story.