Kenneth Puccio A-5

Ken Puccio is a Perth Amboy example of the American spirit of courage and dedication to duty. As a police officer, he's put his life at risk, and as a teacher, he has helped nurture success in our community's children because he attributes his own success in life to educators that guided him.

Born in Perth Amboy and raised by his mother, a single parent, Ken Puccio attended our city's public school system. After graduating from Perth Amboy High School in 1974, Ken Puccio enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he served four years on active duty and spent another eight years in the Army Reserves.

While stationed with his army unit in Texas, Ken Puccio participated in the Big Brother Program and he remained involved in community service when he returned home, as a volunteer firefighter for 10 years and by serving as coach and president of the Perth Amboy Babe Ruth League.

Ken Puccio became a police officer in September 1983, and after seven years in the Perth Amboy Police Department patrol division, he became one of one of 35 police officers selected by the Middlesex County Prosecutor to bring Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) to classrooms from Kindergarten though 12th grade. D.A.R.E. is a drug prevention program that it teaches students good decision-making skills to help them avoid high-risk behavior to ensure they grow up healthy, safe and secure.

In 19 years as a DARE Officer, Ken Puccio has taught more than 3,000 fifth graders. Among Puccio's former DARE students, there are 15 officers in the Perth Amboy Police Department along with an officer in the Woodbridge police force and an agent with the U.S. Secret Service. Puccio also teaches the G.R.E.A.T. Program, a law enforcement officer-instructed classroom curriculum with the primary objective of immunizing children against delinquency, youth violence, and gang membership.

The proliferation of gang problems over the last two decades led to the development of these educational initiatives as part of a comprehensive response to America's gang problem by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Ken Puccio is a recognized expert on street gangs, graffitti, and the juvenile justice system who has lectured at Rutgers, Monmouth and Rider universities.

He also taught classes at the Jersey City and NYPD police academies, trained with the Los Angeles Police Department Gang Unit and worked with the FBI, New Jersey State Police, and NYPD gang units.

In his capacity has a gang investigator, Puccio was targeted for assassination by the Latin Kings, Bloods, and Trinatarios, a prison gang that emerged during the early 1990s. In 2007, Puccio was assaulted by members of the Trinatarios.

Throughout his career as a police officer Puccio has been accredited by other police departments and law enforcement agencies such as the NYPD, FBI, New Jersey State Police, and New Jersey Attorney Generals Office. He was called to work with the FBI's Innocent Images Program, an undercover operation to catch pedophiles attempting to lure young sexual victims through the World Wide Web.

He was also recognized as 'police officer of the year' three times: In 1987 by the VFW, in 1995 by the FOP & PBA, and by the Perth Amboy Merchants Association in 2003.

Puccio earned two valor awards; once for disarming an individual wielding a handgun and once for rescuing a victim trapped in burning building; in addition to a lifesaving award for performing CPR on 14-month-old baby.

He has been widely recognized for his community service, earning the Perth Amboy Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Community Service Award in 1995 and being recognized by the Perth Amboy Police Department with more than 30 letters of commendation.

Puccio served on the Middlesex County Youth Services Commission, as a board member for the Middlesex County Minorities Issues Committee, and on the Attorney General's working group on station house adjustments. He currently administers the grant that funds Perth Amboy's police station house adjustment program. He also participated in the recovery efforts at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

In addition to having served as a team member of the Juvenile Intensive Supervision Program and as president of the Middlesex County Juvenile Officers Association, Puccio is the commander of the Perth Amboy Police Youth Academy (PAYUP) and Perth Amboy Police Department historian.

In his 19 years as a juvenile detective, Ken Puccio has served on the School Leadership Committees of Shull, Ceres, and Perth Amboy High. Since 2003, Ken Puccio has sponsored a scholarship in memory of his grandfather, Giovanni Puccio, to benefit graduates of Perth Amboy High School and the Middlesex County Vocational School.

Every year, Ken Puccio also chooses a high school senior in financial need and provides the money for him or her to attend the prom, class trip, and graduation ceremonies. In 1997, he raised money to finance a proper burial of a 12-year-old Shull School student who was killed by a train and whose family could not afford a funeral.

If it were not for a two people that took an interest in him in high school, Obi Gonzalez and Michael George, Ken Puccio says, "I don't think I would be where I am today."

In addition to being a community-spirited volunteer, a heroic law enforcement officer and a gifted teacher, Puccio is a dedicated parent who has been gifted with two children, a son, Ken Jr., a 20-year-old college student, and an 18-year-old daughter, Victoria.