Orangetown Police Close Open House With Rededication Ceremony (VIDEO)

The Orangetown Police Department has welcomed the community into its police station one day a year for an open house since 1997.

Each year they close the open house by placing a wreath in the front hall of the police station below a plaque honoring four officers who were killed in the line of duty. Michael Reedy and Thomas Kennedy were killed in August 1973 and  Waverly Brown and Sergeant Edward O’Grady were killed in October 1981.

“If we try to remember them in August, not as many people will show up because that seems to be the time of year everyone goes on vacation,” said Orangetown Police Chief Kevin Nulty. “So we decided to remember all four guys at the same time each year.”

All four have their pictures and names on a plaque in the main hallway of the police department. After this year’s open house ended on Saturday, a group of fellow officers, local elected officials and even relatives gathered as the Orangetown Police Honor Guard marched into the hall and placed a wreath below the plaque.

After the wreath was placed, Steven Reedy, brother of Michael Reedy, one of the officers remembered on the plaque, got up to speak. Steven Reedy and his wife Sigrid Reedy come to the open house each year for the rededication ceremony.

“It just means a lot to the family,” Steven Reedy said. “You know it’s going on 38 years, and to be remembered every year by everyone means a lot. I just want to thank the chief. He’s not only the Chief of Police, but he was a good friend of my brother’s.”

Nulty met Michael Reedy in college when Reedy asked for help with a math assignment.

“He must’ve thought I was smart,” Nulty said.

Nulty said he was a volunteer firefighter the day Reedy died.

“It was an overwhelming day,” he said. “It made the dangers of the job real, it made me realize that you can die. I don’t think that’s something a lot of people in their 20’s think about.”

Steven Reedy said he and his wife think about Michael all the time, and just recently they were driving when out loud Steven wondered if his brother was working that day. He added that having a friend of his brother’s, like Nulty, leading the ceremony each year makes it very personal.

“I was at his funeral, and I was crying that day,” Nulty said. “He was such a nice man, and it was my first introduction, I think, into the loss in my life of a friend.

“I think of him every time I walk in this building.”

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