For Long Island family, NYPD shield passed down through generations

Before he died eight years ago, retired NYPD Det. Sgt. James Cody, of Brentwood, was something of a celebrity to his family.

He made the news in 1977 disarming a volatile, gun-toting woman in Queens. In January 1978, Cody was featured in a full-page Newsday article about the department having officers go out in one-cop patrol cars.

Cody retired in 1992 but kept the news clippings, along with many others, as reminders of his exploits. His NYPD shield No. 955 was turned in, given to another officer. Over time, Cody and his family lost track of it.

But last month, a group of NYPD cops who were friendly with Cody’s grandson Daniel, a sergeant at the 19th Precinct in Manhattan, set out to find the badge. Once they did, the cops gave it to him, but only after they choreographed a surprise presentation for optimum effect.

“A friend of mine basically set it up,” said Cody, 33, who grew up on Long Island but now lives in Rockland County with his wife, Inelza, 26, also an NYPD officer.

“I didn’t even know about it,” he said.

The tradition in the NYPD of passing a shield down through generations of cops “has been going on a long time,” said department historian Bernard Whalen.

In the case of James Cody's missing shield, the surprise presentation to Daniel Cody came only after he had casually talked about it with another officer.

He had mentioned the fact that no one knew what had happened to shield 955. A few twists and turns later, the shield was traced to a sergeant who coincidently had worked with Daniel Cody in a different precinct. The sergeant, James Esteves, agreed to have James Cody's shield reassigned to his grandson.

But officials didn’t just give the younger Cody the shield. Instead, everyone, including his father, retired NYPD Lt. Craig Cody, 61, of Roslyn Heights, took part in an elaborate ruse. The morning of Feb. 21, an officer approached Daniel Cody to alert him shield 955 had been found at the 19th Precinct. Cody then ran the number through an NYPD computer and to his astonishment, discovered the shield had been assigned — secretly by department brass — to him.

At that point, Cody's wife, his father and other precinct cops and NYPD officials gathered around him. Craig Cody then pinned the shield on his ecstatic son and gave him a copy of his grandfather’s old police ID card.

“I think the significance is that there are so many people in the department who are generations [of officers],” said Inelza Cody, who is expecting the couple's first child, a boy.

Will he want to become an NYPD officer, have his father’s shield, and continue a beloved department tradition? Time will tell.

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.