A veteran and a rookie TCO assist Island police with summer duties

Like departments in many communities that have seasonal population booms, Shelter Island Police can tackle the demands of increased traffic and visitors’ needs in summer only by shoring up the force. That’s where Traffic Control Officers come in. Hired seasonally, they direct traffic, monitor time limits on parking spaces, check for beach permits and assist regular law enforcement officers in controlling accident or other emergency scenes.

One of this year’s two TCOs is a veteran and the other is new to the job. The veteran is Rudy Helbock, 21, who has been working as a TCO since the summer of 2009. He grew up in Cohasset, Massachusetts and has summered on Shelter Island all his life.
Patrick Ofrias, 21, of Southold is new but his name may be familiar because his dad, Greg Ofrias, co-owns the Shelter Island Heights Pharmacy, where Patrick worked many a summer. Mr. Ofrias is a senior at Roger Williams College in Rhode Island. He started majoring in engineering but switched to criminal justice, harking back to his early childhood dreams of becoming either a police officer or firefighter, he said.

“I fell in love with criminal justice,” he said. His future plans are to seek a position with the New York City Police Department and then transfer his experience to a smaller department, he said.

What he loves about the summer job — besides the opportunity to learn a bit about police work from the inside — is the chance to meet residents and visitors.

“Everyone is very respectful,” he said. People are even understanding when they’re being ticketed for an offense, he said.
That was also Mr. Helbock’s experience from the outset of his TCO days.

“You get to know the community better,” he told a reporter back in 2009. “The people are very nice here.”
Police work is nothing new in Mr. Helbock’s family. His grandfather was a deputy chief; a cousin was a detective; and his uncle was a New York City police officer.