On January 24, 2018, County Executive Laura Curran appointed Patrick Ryder, the former commanding Officer of the Asset Forfeiture & Intelligence Unit, as Commissioner.

Sociologist James Q. Wilson used the Nassau department as the exemplar of this approach in his classic 1968 study, Varieties of Police Behavior.

The Marine Bureau began in 1933 with the gift of an 18-foot Chris Craft mahogany speedboat from the residents of Manhasset Bay.

The aircraft was grounded by World War II, but the air unit was revived in 1968 with the purchase of four helicopters to assist in pursuits and medical evacuations.

The department has also adopted its own system for computerized tracking of crime information known as NASSTAT, now called Strat-Com.

[11] Traffic safety is a major department priority, given Nassau's relative lack of public transportation and its perpetually clogged roads and highways.

A unique feature of the department is its Children's Safety Town, an actual village built to 1/3 scale that includes paved streets, two intersections equipped with traffic signals, an overpass, two tunnels, a simulated railroad crossing and 21 buildings.

In 1989, concerned about the increasingly heavy weaponry being carried by criminals, the NCPD was among the first police departments in the country to trade their venerable 6 shot .38 Smith & Wesson revolvers for the 15-round, nine-millimeter SIG P226 semi-automatic pistol.

[12] In early 2007, the NCPD announced that 207 marked patrol vehicles would be equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, allowing "live" views of the location of all active units.

[13] In late 2006, the department undertook "Operation Gotcha,"[14] deploying a new technology that scans the license plate numbers of passing vehicles directly into a mobile crime computer, allowing the immediate apprehension of drivers operating vehicles with expired licenses, suspended registrations or with outstanding arrest warrants.

The vehicle proved to be a strong patrol car with good all-weather capability and was a valuable asset during Hurricane Sandy.

Nassau County ended up switching to the Ford Utility Interceptor as their main choice for RMP.

NCPD applicants who are selected for assignment at one of these agencies will commence training at the Nassau County Police academy.

Promotion to the ranks of sergeant, lieutenant, and police captain are made via competitive civil service examinations.

Basic academy training includes: peace officer powers, New York State Penal Law, hazardous materials awareness, baton training, blood-borne pathogens, basic first aid/CPR, traffic and pedestrian control, and response to critical incidents.

Unlike its neighboring municipalities, all psychiatric patients in Nassau go to the hospital by ambulance, due to the county having Police Medics on duty 24/7.

The department operates 18-26 Demers Type I and Braun Type-III modular-style ambulances on any given day, each designated a four digit unit number of the pattern 23xx.

All ambulances are advanced life support ambulances and carry heart monitors, defibrillators, oxygen, trauma dressings, intubation kits, IV and IO needles and tubing, Advanced Life Support medications and other vital medical equipment.

As Police Medics are civilian members of the department, they have no rank equivalency to sworn members of the Force (Police Officers), however the lowest rank ever allowed to oversee the bureau was a Deputy Inspector, and in more recent times the bureau was overseen by a full Inspector.

(Not including overtime, night differential, longevity pay, $3,000 per officer for wearing body cams and other benefits.)

Typically, between one-third and one-half of the recruits in every Nassau police academy class are former city officers.

[23] These controversies have led to numerous lawsuits, which have repeatedly delayed hiring and account in part for the force's shrinking size.

After being located for several years in a converted elementary school in Williston Park, the academy facilities were "temporarily" relocated for a decade in trailers on the grounds of the county jail in East Meadow.

[24] A purpose-built police academy, located on the campus of Nassau County Community College in Uniondale, opened in 2021.

The Nassau County Police investigated the hunt for The Honeymoon Killers Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck in the late 1940s,[26] the Weinberger kidnapping[27] of 1956 (on which the 2002 Robert De Niro film City by the Sea was very loosely based), the 1974 kidnapping of Jack Teich, the 1986 murder of yeshiva student Chaim Weiss,[28] the crash of Avianca Flight 52 in Cove Neck in 1990, the Joey Buttafuoco/Amy Fisher imbroglio, and the shootings committed aboard a Long Island Rail Road commuter train by Colin Ferguson in 1993.

Nassau officers also participated in the recovery effort at the World Trade Center site in September 2001.