Long Beach says goodbye to Mike Tangney

A hush fell over the packed St. Ignatius Martyr Church Monday morning when Michael Ryan Tangney rose to eulogize his father.

“He was my hero,” Michael said. “He was everyone’s hero.”

About 200 people — city officials, police officers, family and friends — crowded into the church for funeral services for Tangney, the former Long Beach police commissioner, who died suddenly on March 8, at age 66. He had retired in 2020 as police commissioner, after a 20-year career with the Police Department. In all, he worked for the city for 42 years, serving also as acting city manager in 2017.

Tangney was known as a “cop’s cop” and a no-nonsense manager. He rose rapidly in the Police Department, becoming a lieutenant before being named commissioner. In his years as head of the force, he was credited with reducing crime, keeping the department’s finances under control, securing funds for surveillance cameras and police training, and seeing to it that his officers were adept at the use of Narcan to treat opioid overdose patients.

His 34-year-old son frequently choked up with emotion as he spoke of his father as a man dedicated to his family and the community where he had spent his life.

“Every single day at 5, he was home for dinner,” Michael said. ”He never missed a Sunday dinner.”

Michael recalled a family tragedy that occurred in 2005, when a wrong-way driver on the Meadowbrook State Parkway slammed into a limousine on its way home from a wedding, killing the limo driver and a Tangney cousin, 7-year-old Katie Flynn. Michael’s father, on his way home from the same wedding, drove past the wreck and stopped, and was stunned to find out that members of his family were passengers in the limo.

“He took every member of the family out of that limousine,” his son recounted. When his father got home, Michael said, the two of them sat and cried.

“It was the first time I had seen my father cry, and I was 17 years old,” he said.

When Superstorm Sandy hit in 2012, dealing a crushing blow to Long Beach, Michael recalled his father springing into action. He went from house to house and person to person, checking to see what he could do. “He wanted everybody to be better than they were before,” his son said.

Above all, Michael said, his father loved people, and loved serving Long Beach. He said he hoped his father’s life would serve as an inspiration to others.

“The bottom line is, it’s easy to be angry, it’s easy to hate,” Michael said. “This man did none of that. He loved. He wanted everyone to have a great life.”

The Rev. Anthony Osuagwu, who conducted the service, said he had known Tangney most of his life, and that their families were longtime friends. He noted how well-liked Tangney had been in Long Beach.

“Look at this packed church,” Osuagwu said, gesturing at the filled pews. “Few things in life are as painful as sudden death, but so many people came from so far to support the family.”

Flags at City Hall and Long Beach Police headquarters flew at half-staff on Monday. State Troopers and police officers from Port Washington, Suffolk County and other jurisdictions joined Long Beach police in saluting Tangney. A hearse carrying his coffin was led up to the church by a cordon of motorcycle police. A line of officers stood across the street from the church and saluted when the coffin was carried inside.

After the service, just before the hearse left for the cemetery, mourners placed roses on the coffin, hugged one another and stood silently on the sidewalk. The hearse passed beneath a giant American flag hoisted by Long Beach fire trucks.

An era in Long Beach had ended.