Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi has named Lawrence W. Mulvey, a decorated veteran of the Nassau County Police Department with 28 years of police experience, as the new Nassau County police commissioner.

Mulvey, 56, replaces James H. Lawrence who retired on July 1.

Anthony W. Rocco, currently Chief of Department and a 39-year veteran of the Nassau County Police Department, has agreed to remain in his current role.

During his career with the Nassau County Police Department, Mulvey spent 11 years in uniform patrol and rose through the ranks, serving in narcotics, auto crime and as Hostage Negotiations Team Leader. Before he retired from the NCPD in 2001, with the rank of Inspector, Mulvey also served as an assistant to the police commissioner, representing the department in all matters pending before the Nassau County Legislature and he was the department's liaison to the county executive's office. He also worked to resolve issues with the department's four labor unions.

"Lawrence Mulvey has the managerial and police skills to lead the department in the years ahead and to continue the historic reduction we have seen in crime in Nassau County," said Suozzi. "We are the safest municipality of our size in the nation thanks to a reinvigorated and technically savvy police force. As a veteran of the NCPD, he knows the department inside and out and has the respect of the men and women who put their lives on the line each day to make sure Nassau remains one of the safest places to live in the United States."

Suozzi continued, "I am also delighted that Chief Rocco has agreed to remain as Chief of Department where he can continue to spearhead efforts at crime reduction. Chief Rocco deserves a lot of credit for helping to keep crime at historic lows and, together with the new commissioner, the county will have a top-notch team of managers with more than 65 years of combined police experience inside the department."

A search committee appointed by Suozzi interviewed 11 candidates for the position from a 45-member applicant pool, including high-ranking officials from the NYPD, FBI, Secret Service and other major municipal police departments. Mulvey's appointment is subject to approval by the Nassau County Legislature.

"I am honored that the county executive has asked me to serve the department and the citizens of Nassau County," said Mulvey. "The NCPD has thousands of skilled and dedicated men and women who every day are asked to go out and keep our communities safe. I am humbled by this call to lead them."

In 1981, Mulvey was awarded the department's Purple Heart when, as a patrolman in the Sixth Precinct, he sustained three knife wounds to his chest while attempting an arrest of a burglary suspect.

Before achieving the rank of Inspector, Mulvey served as commanding officer of the Second Detective Squad. In that position, he was also responsible for all criminal investigations for the City of Glen Cove and the Villages of Brookville, Cove Neck and Laurel Hollow. Mulvey also was deputy commanding officer for the county-wide Narcotics Enforcement Team and was auto fraud supervisor for the Fifth Precinct, where he developed and implemented the highly-regarded and nationally-recognized Surveillance, Apprehension and Vehicle Enforcement (SAVE) program. The innovative SAVE program drastically reduced auto insurance fraud and auto theft at the Green Acres Shopping Center during the late 1980s, a program that attracted grant funding and remains in use today.

Mulvey also the led investigation of the Crown Jeweler's fraud, a case that received nationwide attention.

As commanding officer of the Personnel and Accounting Bureau, he developed and implemented the department's Affirmative Action Plan. In addition, he negotiated the first civilianization agreement with the county's police union. And he negotiated agreements to provide county police services to the Villages of Laurel Hollow and Cove Neck.

After retiring from the NCPD, Mulvey served as security site manager at the United States mission to the United Nations. He also co-founded a private security consulting firm, Executive Protection Strategies LLC, based in Westbury. Most recently, he has worked as a security consultant to the Homeland Security Department in New York.

Mulvey, a lifelong Nassau County resident, received a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and a master's degree in criminal justice from Long Island University's C.W. Post campus. He served as adjunct professor of criminal justice at Molloy College and at LIU. He lives in Westbury with his wife, with whom he has college-age twin daughters.

Rocco, a 39-year veteran of the Nassau County Police Department, has served as Chief of Department since 2005. In that post, he is responsible, for the day-to-day operations of the entire department, overseeing suppression of crime in the county to historically low levels and was successful in reducing overtime expense within the department.

Before becoming chief of department, Rocco, as deputy chief of patrol, was instrumental in developing the department's gang suppression strategies and in forming its counter-terrorism team. He also served as commanding officer of Patrol South, comprising the First, Fourth, Fifth and Seventh Precincts. Rocco has also served as commanding officer of the Eighth Precinct and the First Precinct, where he started his career as a patrolman in 1968. Additionally, Rocco has served as commanding officer of the Personnel and Accounting Bureau and as deputy commanding officer of the Police Academy.

Since Suozzi took over as county executive in 2002, Nassau County's crime rate has dropped to its lowest point in 30 years, making it the safest municipality of its size in the nation. Through efficient management, the county has been able to hire more than 550 police officers in the past three years - more than in the previous eight years - and has invested in infrastructure and the latest technology to better combat crime and enhance officer safety.

The new NASS-STAT program, for instance, allows police managers to better identify and target crime trends, and to more efficiently deploy officers. Additionally, GPS units have been installed in police patrol vehicles. And the new Nassau County Police Academy, opened in 2006, provides two and a half times the square footage of the former academy, which was housed in trailers. It includes a state-of-the-art intelligence center, improving the department's readiness for emergency response and homeland security.