Looks to be a pol savior
A HERO NYPD detective who helped escort passengers to safety during “the Miracle on the Hudson” is now looking to enlist in a different type of public service.
James Coll — who with his elite Emergency Service Unit team received the Cop of the Year award in 2009 for their heroics after U.S. Airways Flight 1549 made an emergency landing on the Hudson River — is gunning for a seat in the 15th Legislative District in Nassau County.
“When I saw the opportunity for an open seat, I said I’ve talked about this enough and talked about other people doing it enough, now it’s time to put my money where my mouth is,” Coll, 44, told the Daily News.
“Myself and my neighbors are upset with the way government has been running in both parties. Both have been kind of operating under this friends and family plan: Whoever gets in, let’s get as many friends and family members in to these offices.”
“We keep seeing the same names and the same scandals,” he added, noting the recent 13-count federal fraud indictment of County Executive Edward Mangano. “People don’t trust politicians here when they see them being taken away in handcuffs. “I want to create an alternative.” The 15th District includes Levittown and Salisbury, and parts of Bethpage, Seaford, Wantagh and East Meadow.
Coll will run on the GOP ticket against John Ferretti Jr. — the chief deputy county clerk and nephew of the chairman of the Nassau County Republican Committee, Joseph Mondello.
He played down the heroics of his NYPD career — saying he’s simply a member of a team — but records show he has a long history of saving the day, including plucking a woman out the East River in 2014, rappelling down the side of an East Side skyscraper in 2012 to help workers when a 17th-floor scaffolding gave way, and rescuing people in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
During the “Miracle on the Hudson,” he and his team commandeered a ferry to assist passengers trapped on the plane’s wing. He tied himself to one of his partners and helped get the final passengers onto rescue boats.
Coll said he hopes to bring new insight to crime-related issues that plague the Island, including MS-13 and the heroin and opioid epidemic.
“There’s a vacancy there when it comes to a police perspective,” he said.
“These are crises that need to be confronted,” he said. “We cannot wait until they overwhelm the county. There’s no guarantee that these problems won’t hit us here.”
Coll, a father of two, has been a Nassau County resident since 1981. He followed in the footsteps of his father and older brother when he joined the NYPD in 1997. He has worked in the elite ESU since 2002.
Should he win, he said, he is prepared to leave his 20-year career at the NYPD to represent his constituents.
“I love what I do in the NYPD, but I’m committed to this,” Coll said.