New top cop is a hands-on commander
By Paul Bufano
Pbufano@hunter.cuny.edu
Donald J. McHugh, who became commanding officer of the 41st Precinct in January, is not your average cop.
He’s a lawyer. He’s fascinated by the philosophy of Confucius. He reads the Wall Street Journal every day. And, he plays the bagpipes.
He has also written articles about alcoholism in the police force, and five years ago, he caused a stir with an article on the op-ed page of The New York Times that criticized parents for failing to supervise their teenage children. “If you’re a mother or father, it should be you there watching your teenagers, not me frisking them for weapons,” it concluded.
Hunts Point’s new top cop didn’t get to know the neighborhood from a squad car. The first time he drove through, he was in a delivery truck working in the wholesale food distribution industry. He also worked in a restaurant while going to school, starting out as a dishwasher and working his way up to kitchen manager.
After graduating from Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, he received an academic scholarship to Adelphi University. Thirteen years after joining the NYPD, he graduated from the City University School of Law in Queens.
“I got involved in law because I wanted to increase my knowledge of the workings of the judicial system,” said McHugh, 48. “I now understand the law from the social and judicial perspectives.”
Still, he said, as he made himself a cup of coffee and rummaged through his cluttered desk adorned with photographs of friends and fellow officers, the police force has always been his passion.
Born and raised in Flatbush, Brooklyn, McHugh grew up watching the TV show Adam-12. “From a young age I knew I wanted to be a police officer,” the captain recalled.
He joined the force in 1986 and started in District 3 with Transit. Since then, he has worked in Manhattan, the Bronx, with the Police Academy, in Narcotics and in the Bronx’s 52nd and 46th precincts. The Four-One is his first command.
McHugh is a hands-on leader, who relishes making a bust. He rushed away from his first meeting with the Precinct Community Council to join a raid on a strip club.
He cites an Italian magistrate who was assassinated by mobsters as a role model. Giovanni Falcone specialized in prosecuting the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. The captain believes he knew he was a marked man, yet he proceeded nevertheless.
“Giovanni Falcone represents a giant triumph in law,” McHugh said. “He is the most righteous man of our time.”
When he’s away from work, McHugh says he enjoys reading autobiographies and studying such philosophers as Plato and Hobbes. He likes Italian food and Italian wine. And he keeps in shape by running and lifting weights.
But once he puts on his uniform he is all business. On a recent day off, he was found at the precinct in his bullet-proof vest. He had come in to help issue a warrant.
He has an open door policy and welcomes anyone to walk in and make a suggestion.
“My style of policing is simple,” he says. “I want to meet the bad boys quickly and let them know that ‘I’m coming for you.’”