By Carl MacGowan
Newsday
NEW YORK — Karen O’Callaghan had never heard of Kathleen Reilly before joining the Nassau police force in 1982.
But O’Callaghan, an assistant chief and commander of the homeland security and counterterrorism bureau, symbolizes the progress made by women since Reilly became the county’s first female officer in 1966.
More than 40 years later, Nassau now has nearly 300 female cops, O’Callaghan said yesterday at a ceremony naming the Meadowbrook Parkway’s Merrick Road overpass in Merrick for Reilly.
“It’s long overdue and it’s extremely well deserved,” O’Callaghan said of the honor for Reilly, who was killed on the Meadowbrook on Christmas Day 1967. “She set a standard for all the female police officers through her actions.”
Reilly was promoted to detective in September 1967, just three months before she was killed while helping a stranded motorist a short distance from the bridge that now bears her name. Reilly, who was 28, was the state’s first female officer to die in the line of duty.
Reilly was riding on the Meadowbrook with her mother, brother and fiance when they came upon a driver in distress. When her mother asked Reilly not to get out to help, Reilly replied, “This is my job,” her family said.
A second car struck and killed her.
Gov. David A. Paterson authorized the naming of the overpass for Reilly earlier this year following a campaign by the Nassau Police Benevolence Association.
Yesterday’s ceremony at the Merrick Road Park Golf Course was attended by dozens of Nassau police officers and members of Reilly’s family, some of them too young to remember her.
“We all are absolutely overwhelmed by this wonderful tribute,” Reilly’s sister, Joan Labriola of Wantagh, told the gathering.
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