This month we are spotlighting Inspector Michael P. Cronin, Commanding Officer of the Nassau County Police Department's Eighth Precinct, located at 286 Wantagh Ave. in Levittown.

Inspector Cronin comes to us with over 25 years in law enforcement, starting with the New York City Police Department in 1982. Hired by the Nassau County Police Department in 1985, his first assignment was uniform patrol in the Fifth Precinct. In 1992 he was promoted to sergeant and served as a patrol supervisor in the First Precinct. A promotion to Lieutenant came in 1997 and he was assigned to the Police Academy, where he served as Recruit Program Coordinator and later as the Deputy Commanding Officer. Here he also coordinated, taught and served as Master of Ceremony for the initial several sessions of the Citizens Police Academy (the program is explained below). In 2001 he was transferred to the Bureau of Special Operations where he served as tour commander. A year and a half later he was promoted to Captain and assigned to Police Headquarters as Deputy Commanding Officer of Personnel and Accounting and later served as its Commanding Officer. In December 2004 he was promoted to Deputy Inspector and assigned as the Commanding Officer of the Bureau of Special Operations. In December 2005 Deputy Inspector Cronin was assigned to the Eighth Precinct as the Commanding Officer and in December 2006 was promoted to Inspector.

Inspector Michael Cronin grew up in Nassau County and earned a bachelor's degree from the SUNY system. He has been married for over 20 years and has two teenage daughters.

The Eighth Precinct encompasses approximately 25 square miles with a population estimated at greater than 150,000 residents. The precinct boundaries run from the Wantagh State Parkway to the Suffolk County line and from Old Country Road to the Southern State Parkway. The precinct covers all of Levittown, Bethpage, Old Bethpage, the Village of Farmingdale, South Farmingdale and parts of Hicksville, Plainedge, Plainview, North Massapequa and Seaford.

Seventeen post cars during the day and 18 post cars at night patrol the precinct. Additionally, there are always two supervisors on patrol as well as two police department ambulances. There are 127 police officers, 15 sergeants, three lieutenants, a captain and an inspector assigned on the patrol side of the Eighth Precinct. On the Detective Division side there are 13 detectives, three sergeants and a lieutenant. Additionally, there are 68 Crossing Guards and eight other civilian employees in several different titles assigned to the precinct.

SPIN (Security/Police Information Network) is as example of the collaborative effort between the PD and all venues of the public sector for a more free and timely exchange of information that affects the community. Since any good police department takes its lead from the community it polices, having strong liaisons with groups such as the Chamber of Commerce, different Homeowner Associations, the various school superintendents and the very active group of elected officials represented here in the Eighth Precinct is of vital importance.

The Citizens Police Academy is a 13-week program on which community leaders meet once a week with police instructors from the academy for three hours and receive an overview of actual police training (actual police training is over six months long on a five-day a week eight-hour a day basis). At the completion of the program, the participants have a much greater appreciation for what officers do and why, along with the constraints they operate under. They are then encouraged to bring the information back to their different civic groups and share that information as much as possible. The department has found the program to be a real positive as the participants are far more apt to give the department the benefit of the doubt in situations where before they might not have.

While no level of crime is acceptable, because of the cooperative efforts of the community acting as our eyes and ears and the patrol work of the officers assigned to the precinct, we were able to reduce major crime in this command by over 10 percent in 2006 as compared to 2005.

What can community members do to assist the precinct? If you think something is suspicious and you are considering calling the police, please call. Do not leave valuables in your car (cell phones, GPS, laptops, wallets, pocketbooks). Leaving such items unattended creates a crime opportunity that in many cases can lead to a secondary crime of identity theft. In looking at your home, start with the basics of keeping the doors and windows locked as much as possible. Parents, know where and with whom your children are going and check up on them.