Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced on Wednesday, Aug. 27, the creation of Nassau’s new strategic response team as the county takes on additional members to protect schools and communities.
The newly formed 40-person response team will work closely with schools and colleges within Nassau County to identify potential threats and ensure the safety of students, teachers, and faculty.
Members will be trained to use drones and will receive weekly intelligence briefings, which will identify possible locations where incidents may occur, like concerts, rallies and protests.
“It will be equipped with people who are experienced, privy to intelligence and information on a real-time basis,” Blakeman said at the press conference in Garden City. “It is a great day in Nassau County to be able to let the public know that with the start of the school year, we are devoting more assets to the safety of our communities, especially our schools.”
The announcement came on the same day that Nassau County’s first school district started classes. Jericho schools opened their doors on Wednesday, Aug. 27. Most schools in the county have their first day of classes following Labor Day.
Blakeman said ensuring the safety of children is the county’s number one job.
The Nassau County Police Department said it currently has the largest mounted unit on the East Coast outside of New York City, a fully staffed K-9 unit and a fully staffed motorcycle unit.
“What we’ve done here today was invest again in security to keep your kids safe,” Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said before reports of a mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school.
The NCPD is expected to add 10 additional members to its Emergency Service Unit. The department currently employs 84 specially trained tactical officers.
“There’s nothing more important in Nassau County than the safety and security of our students and our schools, and that has been evident in all the decisions that have been made out of these offices,” Council of School Superintendents President Marie Testa said.
The response team will also have access to 100 new license plate cameras, which will use artificial intelligence to capture data about cars and their license plates. The cameras will be placed throughout the county and officials said that police will be able to apply filters to narrow searches.
The camera system will cost roughly $1.4 million.
Schools, places of worship, libraries and other community areas also have access to the RAVE Panic Button app, allowing people to bypass 911 dispatch services and immediately request assistance in case of an emergency
The Farmingdale School District hosted an active shooter walkthrough at its high school in July. The walkthrough included scenarios in which lockdowns were initiated, armed security responded immediately to the scene, and then coordinated with local law enforcement to eliminate and recover from the threat.
The K-12 School Shooting Database shows there have been 146 school shooting incidents in 2025. The threat to schools has drastically increased in recent years, as the database tracks more than 100 school shooting incidents each year since 2017 and over 300 school shooting incidents in each of the past three years.
Blakeman is seeking reelection as county executive in November, with one of his campaign points being about Nassau’s low crime rates.
Nassau County is creating a new strategic response team. Photo courtesy of the office of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman
