Hours after graduation from academy, rookie cop makes collar in midtown

Hours after graduation from academy, rookie cop makes collar in midtown

He went from grad to hero in minutes.

A freshly minted NYPD officer helped make an arrest Thursday a half hour after he graduated when he nabbed an ex-con robbing an elderly man, cops said.

Rookie cop Dariel Firpo, 23, still wearing his dress blues, alerted a police officer who was directing traffic along W. 34th St. to the attack just down the street from Madison Square Garden, where graduation had just taken place.

"It is great thing to help society," said Firpo, who lives in the Bronx. "This is the best thing that could have happened to me," he said about becoming a cop.

Firpo said he was heading toward the No. 1 train to return home after the graduation ceremony when a passerby alerted him to the 79-year-old man's cries for help.

Cops grabbed Jeffrey Grant, 47, who they said stole $70 from the victim's pocket inside a Wendy's restaurant on W. 34th St., police said.

Firpo tended to the man, who was taken to St. Luke's Hospital and was treated for a broken right wrist.

Grant, who was on parole, had just been released from prison on Friday after serving a three-year stint for stealing a car. Cops said he had been arrested 48 times.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly raved about the brave rookie, saying Firpo "made us all proud. He's off to a great start."

Firpo was part of the 256 new police officers to graduate from the department Thursday.

The small group was a big drop from December's class, which had 1,129 rookies.

"I'd like to have more people," said Kelly during the ceremony. "But I'm just happy to have a new class. You can never have enough officers."

Like other city agencies during the recession, the department has had to cut back. It is eagerly awaiting federal stimulus funding, a cash boost that could add hundreds of officers in the next few months.

Still, overall crime is down 36% since 2001, and murders have dipped 20% from last year. Mayor Bloomberg encouraged the small group of graduates to jump right in and keep up the good work.

"Your class may be small, smaller than previous classes," he told them, "but I'm optimistic."

Despite the shrinking ranks, the graduation was festive and celebratory.

The rookies - a diverse mix of 212 men and 44 women - marched into the chilly auditorium at Madison Square Garden to Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" and the applause of their loved ones.With Jonathan Lemire