Blue is in the blood of new NYPD academy grad from Long Island
Police work is a family affair for new NYPD Officer Beatrice Cousins, center, of Huntington, shown in Hempstead on Thursday, March 30, 2017 with, from left, her brother, NYPD Sgt. Burt Antoine, husband, Hempstead Police Officer Anthony Cousins, and her father, retired first- grade NYPD Det. Harry Antoine. Credit: Howard Schnapp
The NYPD is in the blood of Beatrice Cousins.
The 26-year-old Huntington woman was sworn in Thursday at Madison Square Garden — one of 646 newly minted city cops — and continues a family tradition of wearing NYPD blue that started with Cousins’ father and has continued with her brother and sister.
Cousins, a former emergency medical technician on Long Island, was encouraged to sign up for the NYPD’s police academy by her father, retired Det. first-grade Harry Antoine. She said it was her dad who saw in her the drive and passion needed to make policing a career.
She worked for five years as an EMT for the North Shore University Hospital system before switching careers. Cousins’ first assignment will be on patrol in the 113th Precinct in Jamaica, Queens.
“The opportunity for growth and constantly meeting people and changing their lives,” is why Cousins said she’s looking forward to police work.
Her sister Nancy is an officer in the NYPD’s Technical Assistance & Response Unit, while her brother Burt, is a sergeant in the 101st Precinct detective squad in Far Rockaway.
But even coming from a law enforcement family, Cousins, whose husband Anthony, 30, is an officer with the Hempstead Police Department, found the training tough.
The physical fitness regime at the new police academy in College Point, Queens, was grueling, she said. In terms of classwork, the law classes were the most demanding intellectually, with so many criminal statutes to learn and remember, Cousins said.
Women comprise 22 percent of Cousins’ graduating class, a statistic NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill and Mayor Bill diBlasio touted at the ceremony Thursday.
Officials also noted that 16 percent of 646 graduates are African-American, 29.5 percent Hispanic and nearly 12 percent Asian. The remaining percentage of new officers are white.
Did Cousins get any words of advice from her father?
Indeed, she did.
“Be safe and don’t ever get complacent,” said Cousins of her dad’s hard-earned words of wisdom.
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.
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