Thursday, October 1, 2026
One of the busiest days this year for the Rockville Centre Police Department will be March 23 — the day of the annual St. Patrick’s Parade.
“I always equate it to Mardi Gras,” said Police Commissioner Charles Gennario. And, just like Mardi Gras, it’s an event that involves months of planning.
A few years ago, it was decided that police presence in the village would be increased after the parade. That had a huge impact on decreasing the number of parade-related incidents, Gennario said.
“Since we started doing that about four or five years ago, it’s really cut down on the issues,” he said. “Even last year, we had mobs of people in the village, but the incidents have been cut down drastically. The mayor and the [village] board have been great with cooperating with me. They support us 100 percent on this.”
Village police work with Metropolitan Transportation Authority police, who help out at the train station. “We get a tremendous inflow and outflow of railroad usage,” Gennario said. “They’re a tremendous help.”
Each year, the Police Department brings in as many officers as it can for what the commissioner called an “all-hands affair.” Officers crack down on drunken and disorderly conduct in the streets after the parade ends in front of St. Agnes Cathedral. Anyone who causes a disturbance, he said, will be arrested.
“We place them in our holding facility, process them, and usually by the time they’re ready to be released, they’ve sobered up,” he explained. “But if they have anything more serious, they’re transported to detention for arraignment.”
Each year since more officers were deployed on the streets, Gennario said, the number of post-parade incidents has declined. “We want people to have a good time,” he said. “We don’t want them to have a riotous time.”
Last week, the main concern wasn’t those who might have too good a time, but the logistics of the parade itself. There is ongoing construction on Maple Avenue — the parade route — that could force a detour.
“We thought we’d be able to get the complete route, at least temporarily, in good shape,” Gennario said. “But we’ve had a pretty bad winter, so DPW” — the Department of Public Works — “has not been able to address it the way [Commissioner Harry Weed] wanted. He’s still hoping to do that. But if he can’t, we’re looking at some alternatives. We’ll come up with a good parade route and finish in front of the cathedral like everyone wants us to.”
According to Village Administrator Keith Spadaro, the work on Maple Avenue will not affect the parade route.
Gennario also said that he is going to ask that the bars in the village close early the night of the parade, as they have for the past two years.
“I am going to push for it, and I’m going to talk to the mayor about that,” Gennario said. “Because that’s really a decision that the mayor should make … It helped tremendously. And really, we need the bar owners’ cooperation in that. But everyone has complied the last two years.”
