Coney Island has been home to a lot of carnies and clowns over the years. Now it’s home to a bona-fide detective.
John Nevandro, the burly and sometimes brassy community affairs officer for the 60th Precinct, received a much deserved bump up the ladder last week when he was promoted to detective specialist.
The special recognition couldn’t have come at a better time — Nevandro’s celebrating his 20th anniversary in Coney Island.
Nevandro must have Coney Island and Bath Beach in his DNA. He grew up in the nearby Marboro Houses and graduated from Lafayette High School.
After swearing to protect and serve in 1985, the 25 year NYPD veteran stayed in Brooklyn and never strayed too far from his beloved neighborhood as he patrolled the neighborhoods of Canarsie, Flatbush, Marine Park and Borough Park.
But, in 1989, he was brought right back to the Coney Island seashore.
“It felt strange at first, especially around the Marboro Houses,” Nevandro told this paper, adding that he had been patrolling the Coney Island amusement in the summer as far back as 1986. “There was one time where we had a kid who had runaway from building 25 in the Marlboro Houses and I had to knock on my old door. I got goose bumps.”
Coming full circle to serve the community he as raised in has been the biggest fulfillment of his life, he said.
It’s a fulfillment that’s generational in Detective Nevandro’s household. His daughter Jennifer works in the medical field while his son Anthony is walking the beat in Sunset Park as part of the 72nd Precinct.
