By:Tom Jordan
Right from the start, Jack McKeon got a taste of how demanding the job of police chief would be. And Rockville Centre got a glimpse of how tough he would be in the face of adversity.
Just weeks before his official term began, while he was still carrying an "interim" tag, the first double-homicide in village history went down at a fast-food restaurant on Merrick Road. Two employees of Kentucky Fried Chicken were shot and killed during a holdup, a customer finding their bodies lying
behind the counter in a pool of blood.
Some money was taken from the cash register, but McKeon called the crime an "act of pure meanness."
Two weeks later, after around-the-clock investigative work and an assist from Nassau County detectives, five Queens men were arrested and charged with the murders.
A week after that, Mayor Eugene Murray made the appointment official.
"From cop to commissioner -- it's been a tremendous run," McKeon, 49, said as he retrieved a cigar from a box in his desk drawer during an interview last week. His uniform,
impeccably pressed as always, is as blue as his hair is white.
To this day, he still recalls the May 1991 murder case as the one that upset him most. "It was a waste of life for no purpose," he said. "But if that had happened in another jurisdiction, it may have never been solved. The best of both agencies kicked into gear."
Protecting a community is a big job. In Rockville Centre, that
responsibility is McKeon's. He's done it for a long time; ten years next month. He started out on the force, way back in the 1970s, as a patrolman, a cop with a high school diploma.
In the beginning, back when he was on the beat, not even he could have guessed how far up he would climb. But the Baldwin High School graduate who'd just finished a tour of duty with the Army dedicated himself and worked hard. He went to board meetings and seminars and to additional training courses. He went back to school, earned his bachelor's degree from New York Institute of
Technology, and then later his master's. He enlisted in the Navy and worked the same way, all the way up to commander. He is still in the Navy, and recently finished a three-month tour of duty on the Saudi border.
McKeon was promoted to plainclothes investigator in 1977, then to detective the following year. In '79, he was promoted to sergeant, and in '82 to lieutenant.
After a decade as a lieutenant, McKeon took over for Alfred Schull, who retired as the only commissioner Rockville Centre had known. Because of the suddenness of Schull's departure, McKeon took over on an interim basis. But he hasn't let go of the title, not after having prepared for so long. It was in his blood, he said.
His grandfather was a New York City in the '20s. McKeon hung some of his grandfather's plaques in his office. They're still there.
"I've been very lucky," McKeon said on the day he was sworn in. "I thought I'd retire a lieutenant. I want to make a contribution to this village. I want to do the right thing."
And he has.
