Fallen NYPD Officer Didarul Islam was working private security under department's Paid Detail Unit, officials say

NYPD Officer Didarul Islam was killed Monday while he was working to earn extra money as part of the Paid Detail Unit, a program which allows members of the department to work in their full uniforms while being paid by private firms, officials said.

The program, which started in 1998 under the administration of then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani, was designed as a way for companies to enlist the help of armed NYPD officers as security to deter crime but work in relative safety, officials said.

"It gives police officers an opportunity to earn more money in a safe environment," ex-NYPD Police Commissioner Howard Safir said at the time.

But on Monday evening, Islam, who was regularly assigned to the 47th Precinct in the Bronx, was gunned down by an armed suspect identified as Shane Tamura, as the officer was doing a paid detail shift at 345 Park Ave., a skyscraper home to several large New York City corporations.

The official NYPD description of the program says officers are considered off-duty, acting as private contractors. Islam was required under the conditions of the program to work in his full department uniform including service weapon, radio and bullet-resistant vest.

Islam’s department-issued vest did not stop him from being fatally struck by a round fired from an AR-15 style military assault weapon police said Tamura used in his rampage through the building. Four people, including Islam, were killed and Tamura took his own life, according to police.

The base rate of pay for officers in the program is $49 per hour, an NYPD spokesman said.

According to police officials and veteran officers, police who want to work in the program have to register and private companies who wish to use the officers have to be vetted for security purposes.

Initially, the paid detail concept reportedly met with criticism from the private security industry because the police were viewed as competing with private security firms.

Critics at the time also said police uniforms looked askance at first. But Richard Aborn, head of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, a nonprofit anti-crime group, said the paid detail concept is a good one.

"We do know from studies that visible policing is a good crime deterrent, and I have always been a strong proponent of cops being visible," Aborn told Newsday on Tuesday. "If you think anecdotally, there are few instances where there are paid [uniformed] cops and crime."

Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD detective sergeant now teaching at Pennsylvania State University-Lehigh Valley, recalled working paid detail shifts when he was an officer.

"It helps pay the bill," Giacalone said. "This guy [Islam] with two kids and another on the way, he was just trying to make extra money. It is sad."

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.