By Sheetal Banchariya, Thomas Tracy
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A new state bill honoring slain NYPD Officer Didarul Islam will assist officers like him who took a circuitous path to joining the force.
If passed in Albany, the Didarul Islam Police Recruitment Act will give a pension boost to cops who first served in other city agencies before going into the Police Academy, supporters of the legislation said Wednesday.
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Islam’s father and brother-in-law stood with Police Benevolent Association union President Pat Hendry outside the 47th Precinct stationhouse, where the fallen cop was assigned before his death at the hands of Park Ave. mass shooter Shane Tamura.
Islam worked in a civilian NYPD role as a school safety agent for two years before becoming a full-fledged police officer.
“While he finally became a police officer, he started telling people, this is the way. Become a school safety agent, traffic enforcement agent, or police cadet, and finally, you can become a police officer in the New York City Police Department,” said his brother-in-law, Aamrul Hasan. “He encouraged so many people, neighbors, friends and people from his mosque, to become a police officer.”
But Islam didn’t realize that those years of service to the city didn’t count toward his pension or time until retirement, Hasan said.
“He did not think that was right,” Hasan said. “He was already working in the New York City Police Department, protecting people, but once he become police officer, it was like that service did not matter.”
The legislation will help fix that, Hendry said, adding that cops who joined the department from other city agencies before 2009 were allowed to add their time and financial contributions to their NYPD pension.
“The time that Didarul spent at School Safety, protecting students shouldn’t go erased,” said Hendry. “It should count.”
Didarul, 36, was one of four people killed at 345 Park Ave., a Midtown office skyscraper, on July 28 by Tamura, who drove from his home in Las Vegas and opened fire as soon as he entered the building, police said.
The officer was working an off-duty security post approved by the department and was in uniform when Tamura’s raid began. The father of three was promoted to NYPD detective at his funeral.
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