Croton Detective Gabrielsen Honored for Service to Local Youth

Croton-on-Hudson police detective Cliff Gabrielsen was recently honored as Youth Officer of the Year by the NY State Police Juvenile Officers Association at their annual conference in Geneva. He doesn’t love the spotlight, but he certainly gets a lot out of the work – almost as much as he gives.

As a Youth Officer he does all sorts of outreach within his own community and beyond – he instructs mostly middle-school-and-up aged kids in Croton and the Town of Cortlandt. Last year we featured his efforts to curb underage drinking locally. There’s a cadet program he started in the village with anywhere from 13 to 16 youths who meet every other week and to go through police-related competitions, training, and education.

For the past few years, Gabrielsen’s coordinated the Westchester Youth Police Academy at Pace University, a six-week internship for high school seniors that simulates a real police academy and graduates students with three college credits.

Of course Croton enjoys a low crime rate, but Gabrielsen prides himself on his role of being both “proactive and reactive.” He wants to keep kids on the right course but when they fall off track “and make bad decisions, I try to teach them the seriousness of their actions and work with them, consulting with them and their parents, getting them into community service, helping them navigate family court," he said.

Youth under the age of 16 are treated differently by the judicial system, and they can be dealt with “in-house,” he said, or have to go through county family court. Young offenders could be assigned some essay-writing or volunteering, or in the worse case scenario, end up at the Woodfield Cottage, the youth detention center connected with the Westchester County Jail.

Gabrielsen has his own kids, one in high school and one in college, and says the biggest benefit of this work is “forging these relationships” with other kids too.

“I really connect with high school students,” he said, admitting some may not agree. For the most part, he often hears from a good number of parents, and even students, who thank him for his involvement with their families.