Mr. Margarites and Ms. Flynn’s True Crime class was able to make a Zoom call that was very exciting.

Joseph L. Giacalone is a retired NYPD Detective Sergeant who held many prestigious positions during his more than 20 year career. Most of his career was dedicated to conducting and supervising major criminal investigations. Giacalone was the Executive Officer of the 110th Precinct Detective Squad in Queens and the Commanding Officer of the Bronx Cold Case Squad. He was responsible for managing thousands of cold case homicides and missing persons cases. While working in the NYPD, he found the time to obtain a Master of Arts in Criminal Justice with a Specialty in Crime and Deviance from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2005. Some of the positions that he held while employed with the NYPD:Commanding Officer, Bronx Cold Case Squad, Commanding Officer, Crime Stoppers Unit, Executive Officer, Detective Bureau Training Unit, Director, NYPD Homicide School, and the Executive Officer of the 110th Precinct Detective Squad

Giacalone had dreams to be a firefighter when he was younger but after joining the police force, he got promoted and decided to stay. He added that as long as future police officers are  good listeners, communicate, and ask questions, they can get as far as him. As far as cases he has seen many different crimes and crazy stories to add to it. He was also awarded an NYPD Medal of Honor for his brave acts. Many wonder how police officers deal with trauma on the job, which is why many officers chose to turn that part off and not let the cases or jobs affect them internally. Many cold cases may seem to be closed but a case is never closed. They look for solvability factors and DNA among other things to solve difficult cases. 

Joseph L. Giacalone gave us some interesting stories and lessons in the fun visit of our classroom.